


Best Friends Are The Best, And Friends Are Family

by My Old Works (TheFairMaidenofFandom)



Series: No Bats, Only Just Us [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics), Robin (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: ALL OF IT, Anita Fite Is A Good Friend, Bart allen is a good friend, Bruce Wayne Tries, CEO Tim Drake, Canon Compliant, Cassie Sandsmark Is A Good Friend, Cissie King-Jones Is A Good Friend, Damian Wayne is a Brat, Dick Grayson Messed Up, Dick Grayson Tries to Be a Good Older Sibling, Families of Choice, Family Issues, Friendship, Gen, Greta Hayes Is a Good Friend, I'm not sure yet, Jason Todd Does Not Care, Kon-El | Conner Kent Is A Good Friend, Most of the time, Mostly shenanigans, Oh my gosh, POV Alternating, POV Tim Drake, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Teenage Dorks, That's a lie, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, Tim Drake Has Abandonment Issues, Tim Drake Has Feelings, Tim Drake Has Friends, Tim Drake Has Issues, Tim Drake Needs Love, Tim Drake Needs a Break, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Tim Drake is So Done, Tim Drake's Missing Spleen, Tim Drake-centric, Well - Freeform, a dash of angst, biggggg maybe on that one, but given that it's a stupid bleep decision i've elected to ignore it, but we all know he's lying, i recognize that canon has made a decision, i think all of us know how this is going to go, just a dash, look - Freeform, once again the yj comics were a GIFT, probably, that's what he tries to say, there's so many shenanigans, which is why his friends are forcing it on him, you know that tag?, young justice shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:28:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23506876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFairMaidenofFandom/pseuds/My%20Old%20Works
Summary: ‘There are friends, there is family, and then there are friends that become family.’Most of Tim's family has really dropped the ball. Luckily, his friends are there to pick up the slack.This is a rewrite of my other story, 'If I Cut You Off, Chances Are, You Gave Me The Scissors.'Edit: Hi, yes, this is going to be cheesy and a bit ooc. This story has, along the way, become my comfort fic. <3
Relationships: Bart Allen & Tim Drake, Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Anita Fite & Greta Hayes & Kon-El | Conner Kent & Cassie Sandsmark, Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent & Cassie Sandsmark, Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Alfred Pennyworth, Tim Drake & Anita Fite, Tim Drake & Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Cassie Sandsmark, Tim Drake & Cissie King-Jones, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Tim Drake & Greta Hayes, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent
Series: No Bats, Only Just Us [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1695007
Comments: 187
Kudos: 545





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the title is from that movie. Yes, I think I'm hilarious.
> 
> This is going to be a long author's note.
> 
> Anyway, as my readers from IICYOCAYGMTS know, I decided to rewrite that story. This version focuses more on Tim's relationships with his friends. This still is a reconciliation fic, but the Bats aren't necessarily his end-all-be-all. Tim has friends all over the hero community, and I just can't believe that he'd just ignore all of those relationships. Even if he tried, I feel that they'd probably make sure to stay in touch. Sometimes, friendships can be more important than relations with immediate family.
> 
> As for the Bats, I feel that Dick really messed up with Tim in the Red Robin comics. As far as we know, he never even apologized for the way Tim was treated. The man considered putting his younger brother into Arkham. Arkham, the place where they place the dangerous and insane killers that they fight. I don't even know how they could justify putting Jason in there, let alone Tim. With Jason, there was no initial relationship to break. But with Dick? Dick was his idol since he was a child. It's always messier and more painful to fix a broken relationship than it is to forge a new one. 
> 
> Damian, I'm not even going to talk about. Bruce though? Bruce made me angry with the Captain Boomerang situation. And his emotional constipation. Yes, I get that Bruce has never been an open, or emotional person. But seriously? He goes overboard. As a parent, it's his job to be emotionally available for his children. Many of the times that people have been irritated with the way he handled a situation, was because he handled a situation as Batman, and not Bruce. Bruce is the good father that DC will occasionally show. Batman handled most of the Jason situation. Batman handled Damian. Batman handled the Captain Boomerang situation. I might be a bit biased on some things, solely because Tim is personally my favorite DC character, but I try to not let that color my judgment.
> 
> Covering Barbara, I really like her as a character. I've always thought a Barbara and Tim friendship could be really cool. They're the computer whizzes of the Batfam. It has a lot of potential as a brother-sister dynamic. She'd end up as a mentor/older sister, and I love those tropes.
> 
> Anyway, I think I've done enough character analysis for one chapter. If you've read this far, thank you!

Tim was _not_ a fan of when he had to fight in Gotham with the Titans. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was always hard to conceal their presence. Sure, it was fun to have them there, but it was still irritating to spend all of that time editing footage and erasing their tracks. He was pretty sure Bruce knew when they came into the city, but if he _didn’t_? It wouldn’t end well. No metas in the city and all that.

That was only one out of two reasons why he hated big fights in his hometown. The other was the Bats themselves.

Sure, he was- reluctant friends? allies? coworkers? with Jason, but the rest? He still called Alfred occasionally, but Steph and Cass didn’t count. They still hung out once in a while, but that was it. Cass tried to keep in contact, and they face-timed plenty, but she was on the other side of the world. Barbara was someone he’d never been the closest with, but they had begun getting coffee every few weeks, and she was now someone he knew he could call to help him with little things like testing his computer security or help with gathering information for a case. He had been so proud the day that she said his computer was truly impenetrable.

But Dick? Bruce? The brat? He hadn’t spoken to them in months, and even that was for a case. He kept _those_ interactions cold and quick, especially with the fiasco from a few months back. Since then it had all been, _“Can you get the mugging on 5th?”_ or _“Robin needs backup in the park, can you head over?”_

That was why he hated Gotham battles. Technically _this_ battle was a bit outside of the city, but it was close enough. He wasn’t a Bat, not anymore. He was outside, on the fringe, sort of like Jason, but without the guns.

He didn’t mind most of the time. He had his friends, and that was more than enough. Between Cassie, Conner, and even occasionally Bart, he was pretty sure they mother-henned him more than Alfred did. The four had been having a sleepover at his apartment for the weekend, but when they’d seen the robots in the street, they had unanimously agreed to help out. Though all three had been happy that they’d managed to finish the movie before noticing the attack.

On top of his WE work, he’d been working out a few new possible costumes and codenames. His personal favorite was Drake, but even _Greta_ had told him that one was horrible.

A piece of metal flew past his head, making him snap back into focus. Another reason to hate Gotham battles. He always got so stuck in his head.

Tim jumped onto one of the robots, not being able to resist trying that move he’d seen in the first action movie the four had watched that night. He swung both legs around the ‘neck’ of the robot and twisted so it fell to the ground. Around him, he heard laughs.

“Nice one, Red!”

“Do another one!” Bart was hopping up and down as he darted in between the bots.

Tim rolled his eyes as he kicked at one of the machines. Whenever they watched movies, Bart always wanted him to test out the moves that the characters did. Most of it was flashy nonsense, but some of the stuff was actually cool. He usually didn’t, but sometimes he tried it out.

Tim called back, “Which one?!”

Cassie yelled out from the other side of the field, “Do the one with the shooting staff!”

Tim yelled right back, “My staff doesn’t shoot!”

“We all know you can improvise!”

Tim fought down the smile that started to grow. He dropped to his knees, spinning on his knee pads, pointed the staff at one of the robots, and jabbed it in one of the already partially exposed sections of its torso.

He heard Bart and Cassie cheer, even as Kon punched out two more of the bots, “I give it a 7.5. No lasers.”

Tim laughed as he flipped over it and kicked from its blindspot. “My bo doesn’t shoot, Superboy.”

Cassie laughed as she plowed through one of the bots, “You could totally make one that does that.”

Tim grunted as he was surrounded by six of them. He finished off two easily, stabbing through the head of one more. He felt something cut into his side, making him yelp, more in surprise than actual pain.

Hearing the noise, Kon turned to look at his friend. Catching a glimpse, he nearly had an aneurysm. “Red!”

“I’m fine, Superboy!”

“What happened? I can’t see it from here.”

“I think he got stabbed again!” The joking, light atmosphere that had been present on the field disappeared instantly and the other three began finishing off the robots with brutal efficiency. Bart in particular had a dark look in his eye as he began moving faster.

“I’ll be there in a second!”

Kon was grappling with one of the bigger ones when he chanced a look at Tim, seeing a bot behind him. “Red, look out!”

Tim turned his head from his wound to see one of the robots with the sharpened arms looming over him. He dodged the arm, but when he turned back around, Nightwing was on top of the machine, angrily shoving two escrima sticks into its head.

Tim’s voice was tight. “Nightwing? What are you doing outside of the city?”

“I saw the smoke.” Nightwing did a quick scan of his costume, finally seeing the small gash in his side, “That looks bad.”

“It’s barely bleeding.”

His friends ran up at that moment and began scolding him. “You moron! How many times have we told you to tell us!”

“It could get infected!” Bart exclaimed.

“It’s only been three weeks since your last injury! I swear, what is it with you and getting stabbed?” Cassie sounded exasperated. She gave him an annoyed look, “Don’t roll your eyes at me! I’m not letting you get you any caffeine for a week!”

Tim grimaced. Coffee was a nighttime vigilante's best friend. _All_ the vigilantes he knew relied on some form of caffeine to keep functioning normally. Tim really wasn't as bad as say, Barbara when it came to the stuff. He had a cup, maybe two daily, but his preference was for energy drinks. “It wasn't even a stab! It's more of a scratch. And I literally didn't even have _time_ to tell you guys.”

Kon folded his arms, “Next time you’ll tell us.”

“I’m not hurt!”

Bart whispered into Tim’s ear, “Don’t worry. I’ll sneak you something.”

Tim grinned ear-to-ear as he was helped up. “And this is why you’re my favorite, Bart.”

Conner rolled his eyes. "We all know I'm the favorite."

Cassie gave a sigh, feeling a bit more reassured now that Tim hadn’t been actually hurting. “Why do I even try?”

"Because you're insane?"

A throat cleared behind them.

All of them jumped, even Tim, who had begun to forget that Dick was even there. “Nightwing.”

“That’s my name!”

“We’re already leaving, Dick. Bruce didn’t need to send you out here to send us off.”

Dick looked bewildered. “I didn’t come out here for Bruce, Timmy. Plus, like you said, we're not even in the city. I saw the smoke from the robots and headed over.”

"Thanks for the save, N." He stood up, and Kon picked him up smoothly by the arms. Bart and Cassie were already gone. “Tell Batman that I can pay for the damages if needed.” With that, they flew off.

* * *

When they reached the apartment, they each took a quick shower before changing back into their pajamas. Tim was the first one out, wrapping his side quickly. 

Cassie saw him walking to the kitchen as she exited the Nest. “Sit down, Tim. Jeez, you’re not working anymore. For the rest of the sleepover. You did enough during the first two movies.” She used her old ‘leader of the Titans’ voice, making him realize that she was serious.

“Cassie-”

“ _Sit_.” He tried to search her face, see if there was any way for him to even get just his laptop, but there was no give. “You don’t need to cover up the fight, Tim. The Bats already know we were there, and I know you don’t have anything else time-sensitive.”

“I’m having a drink.” She opened her mouth, probably to try and argue with him, but there was no way that was going to happen. “Cassie, it’s my apartment. I'm tired. I’m getting an energy drink.”

She tried to glare him into submission, but he wouldn’t budge on it. There was no way he was going to go without work _or_ caffeine. It was one or the other, and she had chosen no work. He took off enough time on the weekends.

She acquiesced with a roll of her eyes, walking to the kitchen to retrieve his drink. “Fine. But you shouldn't be having caffeine when you're hurt.”

"I’m not even hurt Cass, it was barely a papercut. Gar got worse yesterday, _and_ it’s not even bleeding anymore." She stuck out her tongue and pretended to plug her ears as she opened the fridge. Tim cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, “And if you drug it like last time, I’ll know!”

“Yes, yes, whatever Tim.”

The other two entered the room, both in the footie pajamas that matched Cassie and Tim. Bart had Superman with Tim, while Kon and Cassie both had on matching Wonder Woman pajamas that they’d all bought for a previous sleepover.

Conner grabbed two of the popcorn bowls that they’d left on the counter. “C’mon, I want to watch the next movie!”

Bart sped in, sprawling onto one of the mattresses with the biggest bowl of popcorn, and a huge bag of candy that he’d run to the store for.

Kon levitated two more bowls into the fort, sitting on the mattress to the far left. Cassie curled up on his outer side, and Tim guzzled the open can before sprawling out halfway on top of Conner as he reached for a bowl, mindful of his bandages. Bart turned on the movie, and then shut off the room’s lights before plopping back down, with Tim’s torso now covering his feet.

They all winced at the beginning scene, but couldn’t resist laughing at some of the verbal exchanges that came after.

“Hey Tim, do you think it’s possible to make that Iron Man suit?”

“The original? Definitely. It's sort of like the Blue Beetle suit if you think about it. The AI, the weapons, the armor. That one? Probably not for anyone like me. Maybe Ted Kord or Luthor.”

“Cool.”

Tim couldn’t help throwing popcorn at the screen when Captain America and Black Widow came out of the shadows to fight the aliens that had been attacking Vision. “Boo! You don’t give away your position to the enemy, ever. Stupid move.”

All four yelled when Quill attacked Thanos. “That moron! Why didn’t he wait?”

“In his defense, he was pretty pissed."

Bart looked irritated. "He still shouldn't have punched him. That's like _you_ hitting _Wonder Woman._ It's just not going to end well."

“Thanks for the vote of confidence."

When Dr. Strange gave Thanos the stone, Tim defended him until he got pillows to the face from Conner and Bart.

They continued watching until T’Challa opened the borders. All three metas made sounds of frustration. Tim tried to explain why it was a good idea, but he stopped, blinking as he pulled a piece of popcorn out of his hair. “It was a good move!” He tried to talk over them as they bombarded him with handfuls of popcorn. “It was the right choice! If he didn’t, then the army would’ve eventually broken through, and then they could’ve been surrounded! If he opens it, then they control where the aliens come in from!”

“Okay, yeah, that actually makes sense.”

“This is why _I’m_ the strategist.” For that, Kon tipped the bowl over his head. Cassie snapped a picture.

She made a quiet comment as Thanos snapped his fingers. “He reminds me of Darkseid, to be honest.”

It took a few seconds, but eventually, Kon, Bart, and Tim all made sounds of reluctant agreement.

Conner and Tim were the only ones who weren’t outright crying when Peter faded away, though they were both a bit misty-eyed. When the credits started rolling, there were sounds of indignation from all four of them.

“Hold up, so the Purple People Eater gets to relax on a farm after killing half the universe?!”

Tim looked irritated, but not as much as the others. “Relax, there’s no way they’ll kill off that many characters permanently. They’ll bring them all back, somehow. They just needed suspense.”

“No way, they all just died. They can’t just undo that.”

“Bart, he disintegrated them with a snap of his fingers. All they have to do is get the stones back, and they can undo whatever happened. I don’t know exactly how they’ll get them since Thanos probably broke them, but they’ll do it.”

“I want to bet on it, but I know that’s a dumb idea.” If Tim agreed to a bet, he had already looked over it from every angle, and pretty much knew what was going to happen. Every single one of Tim’s friends knew it. Many had tried, and only once or twice had someone else had ever won.

“Huh, so you _can_ learn.”

“Hey!” Kon smacked him with a pillow, making Bart whack him in defense of Tim. Cassie missed Bart on her swing and accidentally hit Conner.

It escalated. Fast.

Tim stopped Kon just as he was about to pick up one of the air mattresses, laughing at them all. “If you take that, the whole fort is gonna fall down, and I don't want my living room to get destroyed by a bunch of metas. You want revenge on Bart, you can just dye his shampoo again.”

“Don’t give him ideas! Pranks are _my_ thing.”

Tim waved a hand at the speedster. “I already hacked your phone, Kon, so if you don’t want it to play _What’s New Pussycat_ every time you see someone from the JLA, I wouldn’t let the fort fall.” Tim waved his own phone for emphasis.

Kon flopped down on one of the mattresses, pulling a hand over his eyes. “I hate you so much.”

Tim grinned as the other two began to put some of the pillows back. “No you don’t.”

“Yes I do. I hate you, because I know that you’re gonna do it anyway.”

Tim made himself comfortable in the corner as his grin turned more mischievous. “Yeah, yeah I am. I can’t wait, to be honest. I'll even get videos for Gar.”

Kon threw a pillow at Tim, but the boy caught it, putting it behind his head as he smirked.

“I’m putting something on!”

The teenagers all groaned as Bart chose _Finding Nemo_. He was pelted by whatever popcorn was left in the bowls, but the smile on his face didn’t leave, even as he caught a few pieces in his mouth.

No matter the complaints, they all enjoyed the childish movie.

Cassie was the first one asleep, dozing off right before Nemo was lost. Then came Bart. Surprisingly, Tim fell asleep before Conner, who was the last one awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tim's move in the battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhRVRR_61xU
> 
> The pillow fort: https://24tx9z29jlqrglmtd1td8onu-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Before-Party-1024x576.jpg


	2. The Drive to the Mall, and a WHOLE Lot of Sass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't resist posting this chapter. It's mostly filler, but I love the dialogue I put in.

The next day, Cassie thought she was the first one up, coming to consciousness slowly. Looking around, she saw the others sleeping, except… Tim. She wanted to groan out loud. Somehow, Tim had gotten both a Zesti and his laptop into the fort and was sitting with Bart’s head on his shoulder.

She leaned over Conner to whack his arm. It jarred his hand, almost spilling soda onto Bart.

Tim looked up amusedly, “What did I do now?”

“Tim, you jerk. You’re not supposed to _work._ It’s Sunday and you’re in a pillow fort. Live a little.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been up for two hours, and the pillows aren’t exactly wonderful conversation. And believe it or not, I was playing a game for a solid hour.” She huffed and let herself fall back onto Kon’s leg, waking him up.

“Hn? What time is it?”

Tim looked down at his computer, typing something in. “It’s noon. I thought you were a farmer, Kon. Farmers get up early,” he teased.

Conner gave him an unamused look. “Living in Kansas during the week doesn’t make me a farmer. I try _not_ to get up before noon when I can.”

“Yeah, we noticed,” the two co-leaders snickered.

Tim’s shoulder shook with his laughter, making Bart wake up. “What are you guys laughing about?” he rubbed his eyes sleepily.

“Conner’s trying to go back to sleep.”

“What?” He looked at Tim’s computer, jolting awake, “It’s practically almost night again! I should’ve been up forever ago!”

Cassie snorted, “Yeah, but we were up until like, four.”

“Yeah, but still!"

Kon slid his leg out from under Cassie and stretched. “I’m hungry.”

“That must suck.”

“Tim. _Dude. Metabolism._ ”

“Fine. What do you guys want?” 

“What about that place we got last time? The burgers?"

"You mean Batburger. Seriously? _That's_ what you want right now?"

"Definitely." "Yeah!" "Honestly, yeah."

He rolled his eyes, "I'll call it in. What do you guys want?"

"I don't care, Rob. You know what we like."

"Yeah." He walked into the kitchen and placed the order from one of the barstools. He heard a swish of air, but ignored it, assuming that Bart was probably bored.

The others didn’t bother to get up, comfortable on the living room floor, littered with pillows. Tim soon joined them, after reassuring the lady from Batburger that yes, he did want that much food, and no, it wasn’t a prank.

This time, he fell backward onto Bart, earning an elbow to the gut.

They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments before Tim looked around for his computer. He saw grins grow simultaneously on their faces making him look at Bart, who’s grin had a touch more mischief than the other two.

“Bart..”

Cassie crossed her arms in an ‘x’ in front of her chest. “No intimidating him to get back your laptop! You don’t get to work anymore!”

“But WE needs-”

Conner cut him off, “Cassie called Lucius, and he said you already sent in all your work for this week, _next week_ , and that you need to take a vacation for at least a week. He cut you out of the system. Apparently there’s some labor rule that you’re breaking, and it's bad for PR if someone finds out.” He shared a discreet fistbump with Cassie. The wording on that had been carefully chosen.

“You know I can get in if I want to. And labor laws don’t apply to me.”

“Um, that’s like the entire point of the law.”

“I haven’t even gone over the maximum hours much.”

“What’re the maximum hours?” Bart was curious.

“.....forty hours a week.” 

Cassie snorted. “There is no way you work anywhere near that little. Plus, it’s already been decided. You aren’t working on anything for at least a week.”

“Cass, Cassie, WG, Wonder Girl, that’s not fair, I need to do things for Red R-”

“I saw you finish that case already!”

He groaned. “You guys are the worst. Why won’t you let me work? Most people would love to see a hard-working teenager.”

“That’s stupid because a) we’re not old, and b) you work way too much already.”

“We’re going to get bored.”

She lifted her phone, waving it a little. “We planned it out. We’re gonna be normal for the weekend!”

“I’m pretty sure normal teenagers don’t have to plan out ‘being normal’. And what about the Titans?”

She gave him a dry look, holding up a finger. “One, Gar offered to take over. He didn't mind, and we're on standby if they really need us. Two, we’re not normal. Kon can lift up a bus with one hand. But we are going to act like normal civilians today!”

“But-”

“Rob, shut up. Please.”

He raised both hands in surrender. “Fine, you guys win. Just one last question though, how long have you guys been planning this?”

“Three weeks! Vic mentioned it about a month ago. 'Said he was worried about burnout.”

He opened his mouth to respond, and then closed it again. “Okay… what are we doing first?”

“First we eat, duh.” He couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of him at Bart’s response.

Tim smiled at his friends, “I love you guys.”

“Aw, we love you too!"

“Can one of you send me the itinerary? I _know_ you made one.”

“Who says we made an itinerary?” Oh, Conner, sweet, naive Conner.

“Because Cassie knows that I usually wouldn’t accept something like this without seeing what I’m getting into.”

“But you did it today,” he insisted.

“I’m in a good mood today," he teased.

His phone dinged, informing him that Cassie had sent him the list.

**_Stuff We Wanna Try:_ **

  * **_The Smoothie Challenge_**
  * **_Go to the mall_**
  * **_Truth or Dare/ sleepover games_**
  * **_Take a picture with each thing_**



He nodded as he finished looking over the short list. “Do you guys have any order you wanted to do it in?”

“Nope. We knew you’d want to figure that part out.”

“Then I think that we should probably go to the mall first, then smoothie challenge, and the games can be done later tonight since those are more like sleepover games.”

“Why that order?”

“I don’t think you guys will want to have the smoothie equivalent of vomit right after eating Batburger, and it’s already almost noon. The mall is the most time-sensitive, so I thought you guys would want to do that first..”

“You thought that out way too much.”

“Maybe.”

Cassie announced, “We need a picture of our pajamas.”

True to form, Conner lifted his phone into the air, making sure not to miss anyone, and then snapped the picture as they all smiled, bedheads on full display.

“Send it to me!” 

“I can get prints made.” 

“That'd be awesome.”

Tim checked the photo over. Thanks to the lights Bart had put up the night before, the lighting was pretty good, and everyone’s eyes were open and looking at the camera. With a few taps, he made it his home screen. “I’ll try to get the prints by next week.”

“Awesome! I can put it in my room!”

There was a knock on the door, but Tim was _really_ comfy, and _really_ didn’t want to get up. He gave Bart a look. The speedster disappeared and then reappeared. “Where’s the money box? I don’t remember.”

“Lift the hook by the door and then turn it to the right.”

“Got it!”

“Don’t forget to make sure it’s American dollars!”

“I know.” Bart opened the door, handed the money to the delivery boy, grabbed the food, and shut the door in the poor boy’s face with a call of, “Keep the change!" He appeared back in the fort with the food. “Here!”

“Dang, Tim.”

“Hey, you guys are the metas.” He laid out the food in front of them all, but left the most in front of Bart. His food was gone in seconds.

Kon laughed, “We’re lucky if you eat at all.” Tim stuck out his tongue at the remark.

“Wow, okay, these fries are amazing.”

Tim made a face. “Yeah, they taste good. Dunno why they’d call them ‘jokerized fries’ though.”

“Ew.”

Cassie went somewhat quiet as something poked at the edges of her mind. She watched her fry move around in her sauce cup. “So, Tim, how long has it been since you last saw Dick? Before yesterday, I mean.”

He matched her feigned nonchalance. “We haven’t really talked _much_ since I got back.”

“What? You guys used to talk all the time!”

“Dude, that was like a year ago.”

“No, it was like ten months ago. And we just haven't gotten around to hanging out lately.”

"Ten months is not 'lately'.”

“It’s not so bad. I talk to Cass once a month, and Alfred too. I talk to Steph every little while, and me and Barbara are good, better than ever.”

“But what about Batman? Or the little assassin Robin?”

Tim snorted. “I haven’t said more than a few words to Damian since he left the Titans. I don’t really want to, either.”

“That’s screwed up.”

“Yeah, but what can you do?” Tim shrugged to punctuate his statement. “So when are we going to the mall?” He looked at the various food containers, mostly empty. “I’m pretty full.”

The others picked up on his tone, “I’m good.”

“Me too. Bart, if you would..” Bart blurred, and the rest of the food was gone.

Tim stretched, standing up. “You guys’ stuff is still in the guest rooms.”

“Is our-” “Toothbrushes and stuff are still there.” “Perfect.”

Tim went to his bedroom, combing through his closet. He ended up grabbing a black tee, flannel and aviators, and a blonde wig with a simple white tee shirt and dark jeans. He walked out to the living room, where Kon was sitting on the couch, already dressed in a plain black tee and jeans. Cassie was sitting in a simple red romper and ponytail, and Bart wasn’t there, but Tim knew better than to assume the speedster was still changing. He held up both options. “Which one looks better?”

“I’d have to see it.”

He tried the first outfit on and walked back out to the living room. Cassie didn’t even entertain it for a second. “Nope, no. You look like Conner in those glasses, and flannel is not acceptable in summer.”

“Fine.” He went back and tried on the other one.

“Much better. The wig isn’t really necessary though, is it? If you really want to cover your face, the bangs aren’t really doing it. Use some glasses.” Tim looked to Kon for help, but received a shrug. Tim ran back to his room and grabbed some black wire-rimmed glasses.

“That’s it! That looks perfect. You should wear those more.”

Bart ran in, wearing a striped tee, and then they were ready to go.

Looking in the mirror as they walked into his garage, Tim had to admit that they _did_ look good on him. Maybe he’d start wearing them more.

As they climbed into Tim’s SUV, Kon wondered aloud from the front seat. “I can’t believe you’re an actual teenage billionaire and you drive a _Subaru_.”

Tim defended his car, “My car works fine, and it’s _supposed_ to be boring. That’s the point.” Bruce was the showman, but Tim was the quiet, nerdy boy who ran the company. His cover _was_ boring. The car started with a pleasant hum. “I don’t think Gotham Mall is a good idea. What about Metropolis Mall? It’s like thirty minutes out, but we probably won’t get robbed.”

“I mean, that should work.”

“Trust me, Gotham Mall is like pickpocket central.”

"Gotham is nuts."

“You’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.”

"Heard it one too many times, Bart. You're on thin ice, buddy."

After almost exactly thirty minutes, Tim stopped at the edge of the mall’s lot. “Where are we going first?”

“I want to go to the Disney store!” 

“Ooh, good idea,” Bart agreed.

“You guys are absolute dorks.”

“Shut up, Tim. We all know your favorite Disney movie is Tangled.”

“Yeah, but Flynn is cool. He's got the rugged charm thing working for him. Bart’s favorite is Beauty and the Beast.”

“I like the songs! Kon likes Aladdin.”

Kon didn’t even try to defend himself. “Aladdin is cool.”

“Fair. If Tim was poor, he’d be Aladdin. ‘You’re only in trouble if you get caught’ is like Tim’s life motto.”

“I take offense to that. I’d use my two wishes _wisely_. He wasted his. Also, where would I even get a monkey?”

“Gar would do it.”

Tim would refute it, but it was true. Gar would absolutely do it if he asked. “Yeah, okay, that’s fair.”

Bart was already out of the car when he pulled in. “C’mon! You guys take forever!”

“Bart, we don’t all _move at the speed of light_ as a light jog.”

“But go faster!” “Ohmigosh, _we’re coming_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick question. Do you guys mind if the chapter length varies? I originally wrote this as one long story, but when I'm cutting it back up, the sections aren't all one length. Some are pretty long, and some are very short.


	3. Meeting Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group meets up with a few more friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have spent so. Much. Time. Editing. If I have to add one more period to this section, I think I'll go nuts. 
> 
> Anyway, I'm going to try to get one update out a week. Roughly. Maybe. Hopefully?

They made their way into the small store, looking around.

“This is actually a pretty cool store design. I’m sure the consumers appreciate how whimsical it is, what with the giant tree and all. It’s a great marketing technique.”

“See, sometimes I forget you’re a CEO, and then you stay stuff like that.”

Tim grinned as he noticed something on the rack. He grabbed it, not even bothering to hide the utter glee spreading over his features. “Exactly how hard do you think Cissie would hurt me if I gave her this?” It was a Princess Merida doll, complete with a tiny bow.

Cassie started cackling, “Oh, that’s perfect! She’s going to _hate_ that.” Kon smirked.

Bart grabbed a box off a nearby shelf. “What about this for Anita?”

The other three started laughing harder at the sight of the princess Tiana doll in his hands. Tim was laughing the hardest as he grabbed the two dolls. “Anita likes Tiana, but Cissie’s going to _kill_ me. And it'll be _fantastic_.”

“I wish they were here. I’d pay actual money to watch them chase you down,” Cassie laughed.

Tim cackled harder, even as the others began calming down. All four felt the eyes on them after the loud outburst, but they were completely ignoring it. Tim had a sudden realization, making his eyes widen and his laughing to cease, “...Cissie’s going to be working in New York for a while.”

Cassie’s eyes lit up. “Do you mean..”

He nodded slowly, his gaze gaining a bit of seriousness. Cassie jumped forward, hugging him tightly. “Tim, thank you for being a devious little stalker.”

He nodded into her shoulder, before hearing the last words, and pulling back with a dirty look. “I am not a stalker. I just follow my friends’ schedules.”

“Mm-hm.”

Bart gasped. “Do you think you could get Anita too?”

Tim’s eyes sharpened, and they could _see_ the gears turning in his head. “I can get her someone to watch her parents for the week. I have plenty of people in Louisiana, and I can probably get Ish later in the week. Not even an issue. He’s been due for some vacation time, I think. I’ll try Greta too.”

“Awesome!” Tim stepped out of the store to make a few phone calls, handing the dolls to Cassie, and within minutes, he was back, a little smirk still on his face from whatever he’d said over the phone. “Anita says you can pick her up in an hour. Cissie’ll be ready in about forty-five minutes. Says she has to wrap up some things before she goes off-grid. Greta says she can’t make it, but she hopes we have fun.”

Tim received another hug, this one from Bart. “Tim. Tim. Dude. You’re the best. Sucks about Greta, though.” Ever since the situation with Darkseid, Greta had been fairly hard to meet up with. She still felt guilty about the whole thing, no matter how many times they reassured her that it was okay and that they understood. She hung out with them sometimes, but she usually turned down their offers. Recently though, she’d been getting a bit better, so this time it was likely that she just couldn’t make it.

“Yeah, she said she had a few exams and then plans with other friends.” 

They began to walk around the store again, attempting to kill time. Tim had to bite his lip to suppress a smile as he snatched up six more items.

Cassie heard Tim snicker, peeking around the aisle to see what he’d found. She gave an overdramatic sigh. “Tim, you have way too much money.”

He shrugged. “Probably. But these’ll be fun.” In his arms, he held six blankets, each with a different Disney princess.

Cassie began muttering to herself as she found the other two fighting with toy lightsabers. “How are all my friends children?” No matter her complaining, she still whipped out her phone and began filming. She bit her lip, putting her hand over her mouth to quiet her laughter as Kon knocked into one of the mannequins, narrowly catching it before it could hit the ground. Kon and Bart finally quit when the manager began glaring at them for knocking over another display, this one of Frozen toys.

Cassie turned around, hiding behind the big tree as she sent the video to the group chat with the caption ‘ _see what I deal with? I can’t wait for you two to get here’_. She had wanted to send it to the one with Greta in it, but Cassie also didn’t want the girl to feel excluded just because she couldn’t make it.

Cissie typed back fast, ‘ _i’m coming, i swear. I’m just making sure that i don’t have anything going on this week’_

Tim responded to Cissie’s message almost instantaneously. ‘ _this week? you guys are crazy and i did not agree to having you all in my apartment for that long’_

Anita finally replied then. ‘ _you don’t have to agree’_

_‘i hate you guys’_

_‘i don’t think so. would you let people you don’t like into your way too clean apartment? I think not, tim’_

_‘shut up, kon’_

Cassie thought for a minute, deciding to remind them. _‘don’t forget your pajamas!’_

_‘the ones we bought for the sleepover with all of us?’_

_‘yeah’_

_‘got them!’_

_‘areyoucomingsoon?’_

Cissie replied almost instantaneously. _‘yea, i’ll be there in a bit, Bart. Donnie wants to go over my schedule again over the phone since i wont be back for a bit.’_

_‘ilikeDonnie’_

Cassie tacked on, _‘yeah, he’s way better than your old agent’_

All of them liked Donnie better. To be fair, her last agent had been appointed by her mom, and that was never going to go well. After deciding to also pursue modeling on the side, Cissie had used her sponsorship money to find her own place and then had begun the search for a new manager. She’d narrowed it down to two and then had Tim vet both. By the end, they’d been left with Donnie Whitman, a middle-aged manager with a background in both modeling, sports, and a few other things. 

_‘gotta deal with oshi, but i’ll be ready in an hour. thanks for finding someone for them, tim’_

_‘bye anita!'_

_‘Bye!’_

_‘can’t wait to see you guys! but Donnie wants to finish, so i have to go’_

_‘bye cissie!'_

_‘Bye Cissie’_

The blonde heroine put her phone back into her pocket and went to find the boys. She found them at the checkout, with Tim paying for the dolls and blankets.

Conner stuffed his hands in his pocket, “So what now?”

Tim frowned in thought, “Well, I don’t want to do anything big until Cissie and Anita get here.” He remembered another store in the mall, somewhere he’d been wanting to go with Cissie. They’d been talking about it on and off over video chat for a while. He decided against telling the others, deciding that they’d end up wanting to go in now, instead of when she got there.

“Yeah..”

Tim saw a store that looked promising. “Hey, do you guys mind if I stop in there? My skateboard could really use some new wheels.”

“Go for it, Tim. I’m stopping in American Eagle.” Bart and Kon ended up going with Tim, and Cassie headed off on her own. Neither wanted to be Cassie’s personal clothing rack while she tore through the store’s selection. They’d each made that mistake once, but _never again_.

Tim spent a while picking out the wheels he wanted, and Kon had stopped in a nearby store for a new button-up, but they were in and out of both shops by the twenty-minute mark. Bart left, returning with a pretzel from one of the stands.

Cassie met up with them about ten minutes later, two new bags in hand. “Cissie texted, so I’ll be right back.” Tim grabbed them, and she left through the mall doors, presumably going to fly out from the parking lot. 

After about twenty minutes, Kon perked his head to the side. “They’re here. In the parking lot. Cissie wants to know if she can put her bag in the car.” Tim would’ve been surprised it took so long if he hadn’t known the physics. If either Cassie or Conner flew with one of them at full speed? Tim, Cissie, or Anita’s heads wouldn’t be attached to their necks. Bart, of course, could handle the velocity, thanks to his own superspeed, but he could only carry one person. But with Kon’s TTK field, he could just extend it over his passenger, and then he could fly at almost full speed. It was something they’d figured out in their Young Justice days. Unfortunately, Cassie didn’t have tactile telekinesis, so she had to fly slower. Still fast, but not as fast as Superboy.

Tim pondered his options for a moment before deciding. “Let’s just go out there. I’d just send Bart out with the key, but Anita should be ready in a few minutes, and that way we can just take all the bags out at once.”

“Cool. I’ll call Cass.” Tim gathered up all the bags off the bench, and they headed outside to meet the two girls.

Cissie stood there in jeans and a simple red tee, grinning at them.

If Bart ran just slightly faster than a normal human, no one would ever know. 

He gave her tight hug. “Cissie!”

She greeted, “Hey Bart! You do know I saw you like, last week, right?”

“Yeah, but that was forever ago!”

Tim gave her a hug when Bart finally detached himself. “Hey Cis.” He was actually pretty excited to have most of the gang together. It hadn’t happened in a while, but it was always fun. The last time they'd all been together in the flesh had been roughly two months after Tim had come back.

“Tim. You do know we’re not letting you work for at least a week, right?”

He had to use almost all of his self-control to keep from smiling. From the growing one on Cissie’s face, she knew it. As it was, he sighed heavily, and admitted, “Yeah, I do.”

She lifted the duffel bag in her hands. “Gonna unlock the car?”

“Uh, yeah.” He fumbled with the half-dozen bags for a minute before finally pulling the key out of his pocket. “Here.”

Conner gave Cissie a quick hug before floating a few inches off the ground. “‘Nita texted. Be right back!”

He was gone in an instant.

Tim put the bags in the front seat, and then opened the trunk, and pulled up the two seats in the back, getting them ready for the two new additions. Cissie threw her bag in front of one of the seats and sat on the edge of the trunk. “Cassie sent us the list. How are we going to get the stuff for the smoothies? Grocery store?”

“Nope. Bart’s gonna get it.”

“Makes more sense.”

“ _I_ came up with it. Of course it makes sense.”

“Tim, you barely ever make sense.”

He protested, “I always make sense.”

Cissie deadpanned, “Only to us. _Some_ of the time.” At the dry look he gave her, she added, “Tim, you’re the most paranoid person I’ve ever met.”

“It’s not paranoia if-”

“If someone’s really out to get you, I know.”

“It’s true!” 

Cissie couldn’t even argue with that. Tim had pissed off way too many people in his short, eighteen years of life. And that was only counting his personal villains, not to mention all the enemies that hated the Titans in general.

Kon dropped down about ten minutes later, holding a beaming Anita. She walked over, giving both Tim and Cissie hugs and greetings, and then moved to Cassie and Bart, who had been whispering about something that Tim was actively choosing _not_ to worry about.

The entire group gathered under the trunk, given how brightly the sun was shining. Anita heaved her bag over the seats, with it landing next to Cissie’s. “Cass sent me the list. So we’re going shopping here first?”

“Jeez, Anita. All business.”

“I just got free of two four-year-olds, and I haven't seen you guys in months. I never want to do _anything '_ 'business' ever again.” They shared a laugh.

Re-entering the building, Tim noticed a store sign, discreetly pointing it out to Cissie. She and Tim shared a look, jogged to get a bit ahead, and then stopped in front of a certain store. Cissie took over the explanation. “Okay, hear me out! Me and Tim were talking last week, right? And we heard that they have a set of Wayne Tower, and we want to do it.”

Conner shrugged. “That sounds fun.”

“It’ll be awesome!” Bart sounded more excited than Cissie did.

Walking in, they were all somewhat intrigued by all of the displays, but Tim looked absolutely _enthralled_ by some of the more complicated sets. He halted in front of one of them. “I’m buying this.” Anita was the only one to look over, as the rest of them were already on the other side of the store. 

“Tim, mon, that’s like five hundred bucks.”

“Yeah, but I never spend much money on anything that isn’t work-related (read: vigilante gear and tools). And this looks fun.”

Anita rolled her eyes. “It’s your money. Are we doing this one or the tower?”

He shrugged. “We can do both. Cissie really wants to do the tower, so I think we should. I kind of want to build this by myself anyway.”

“You know you don’t have to buy both, right? We can just do one.”

“Yeah, I like buying stuff for you guys.” And Anita _knew_ it. Once, when they were video-chatting, she had made an off-hand comment about how fast they were outgrowing their crib, and the next day, there had been two new, top-of-the-line kids beds on her front doorstep. The beds had been _ridiculously_ expensive when she’d looked them up online. He’d explained himself with a shrug and told her that he had too much money to not spend some of it on his friends.

Tim grabbed the set and his friends, who had the set of Wayne Tower and a few cups of extra bricks from the wall at the back. At the checkout, Cissie had originally tried to help Tim pay, but had given up after the third thwarted attempt.

By then, Cassie and Cissie had both wanted a snack, so they’d stopped at a pretzel stand. Tim snapped the obligatory picture in front of the stand, with everyone holding up their pretzels at various stages of being eaten, wide smiles spread across each face.

Once they had all eaten at least one (or four, in Bart’s case), they’d decided to head back to Tim’s apartment. Most of them had been at the mall for close to five hours, and were fairly bored of walking around.

Pulling up, Tim had run the purchases from the Disney store into his Nest while the others separated the other bags.

Coming back out, he saw Cissie and Anita evaluating the fort in the living room.

“Should we expand it? It should be good, if a little small, but I have more blankets and stuff.”

Cissie tapped her chin. “I think we’d be fine, but it’d probably be better if we added more.”

Tim nodded, walking to the closet near the bedrooms and pulling out another five blankets.

Since they had already had a vague idea of what they wanted, it didn’t take them long to set up a bit more space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, Legos were my _jam_. No joke, it is so, so easy to spend money in the lego store. All the displays look _awesome_. In fact, I remember this one time years ago that me and my sibling conned our dad into spending like, three hundred dollars in one trip for our combined birthdays. Not kidding. That wall of legos is like a _siren's call_ for kids.
> 
> The Wayne Tower set isn't technically a set, but I wanted them to build Wayne Tower. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FQiV83V5.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2Fgallery%2F80GB8%2Fcomment%2F711058271&tbnid=FldcChV5UZEPtM&vet=12ahUKEwiz25ybhLToAhUMz6wKHRWWDMEQMygKegUIARCwAQ..i&docid=_RqmM1vtCxUK0M&w=4032&h=3024&itg=1&q=wayne%20tower%20lego%20set&ved=2ahUKEwiz25ybhLToAhUMz6wKHRWWDMEQMygKegUIARCwAQ#h=3024&imgdii=KuL1hgUSsENrNM:&vet=12ahUKEwiz25ybhLToAhUMz6wKHRWWDMEQMygKegUIARCwAQ..i&w=4032
> 
> Here's the set that Tim wants! I figured he'd go for something a bit more intricate than a regular set. https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/liebherr-r-9800-excavator-42100
> 
> And here's the updated pillow fort. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d5/02/6d/d5026dcdf27525a138f074451faa584c.jpg


	4. Smoothie Challenge and a Bit Of Truth Or Dare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like reading this chapter better than I like writing it, because, well, ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯. It's definitely not my favorite, and I'm not sure how I feel about the dialogue/characterizations, but at least we hit the actual story plot!
> 
> I am definitely excited for the next chapter, and the one after it, though I haven't written that one. This story is mostly chaos that I'm trying to shove together and force to make sense.

Kon spoke, “Bart, can you get the stuff for the-”

Bart blurred, and then he was back, placing paper bags on Tim’s island, with a bowl sitting next to them. The bowl was full of slips of paper.

“Thanks, Bart!”

“Isn’t the whole point of this for the bags to be random? If Bart knows what they are, how’s he going to play?”

Bart gave her a bright smile. "I told Grandma Iris about it while we were at the mall! I gave her the stuff, and then she put it all together."

"Good thinking." 

Tim grabbed a blender and a Ninja out of his cabinets, placing them on the countertop. Plugging it in, he asked, “So how are we doing it? Teams? There’s only two blenders, and I’d rather we _not_ have to wash them a million times.”

“Teams sound fine. Who’s with who?”

“Let’s do it random. Here, there’s a random team generator on google.” Cissie typed in each person’s names, “Okay, it looks like it’s going to be Kon, Bart, and Anita, and then me, Tim, and Cassie.”

Bart raised his hand, “We get first pick!” He pulled out of the bowl, getting a nine. He grabbed the bag, and gave a smug look to the other team when he received strawberry jelly. He was about to put a spoonful in, when Anita spoke up.

“Bart, use extra. It’ll help when we get the nasty stuff.” Bart ended up dumping in half the jar.

Cissie went up next, getting a twelve. When she pulled it out of the bag, she grimaced along with Cassie. The other team began snickering. It was beans. Not even the good kind. No, they were canned _black beans_.

Then came Anita, Cassie, and then Kon. They got pickles, blackberries, and garlic.

Kon was still complaining about the garlic when Tim picked. He got a thirteen. His eyes lit up when he looked in the bag. “We finally got a good one!” It was coffee beans. Both of his teammates made faces as the other team laughed aloud at that. Only Tim would be happy to put straight coffee beans in his smoothie. He grabbed a few out of the bag, popping them in his mouth as he poured most of the rest in the blender.

“Tim, not the whole bag!”

“Relax, I was only going to put in half..”

Cissie threw her hands up. 

The circle went around again, with Bart, Cissie, Anita, Cassie, Kon, and Tim, in that order. They got mayonnaise, orange juice, milk, olives, mango, and caramel syrup. Then came the last round, where they got chocolate, marshmallows, lemon juice, fish, mustard, and lemonade. By Anita’s second turn, they’d started up some music, so it ended up being much more fun than the disgusting smoothies would imply.

“You guys complain too much. It’s gonna taste fine.” Tim didn’t really care how it would taste. He and Anita had the iron stomachs of the team, so he knew he’d be fine.

“You’re only saying that because you got all the good stuff,” Kon complained

“No, it actually came out pretty even.” Tim had kept count.

“Beans are not as bad as mustard.”

He grabbed six glasses from the cupboard, and filled them each to the top. “Tim!”

“What? If we want to have the full experience, we have to drink the whole glass, Cis.”

“But it’s gross…”

“Wait! We have to take a picture!” Kon once again raised up his phone at Cassie’s request, and snapped a picture of them, each posing with a glass of the smoothies.

“Wait, crap, Tim, aren’t you supposed to take your antibiotics today?” He had to take them once weekly, and all of them kept a careful lid on it. 

He cringed, “Oops. Yeah, I have to take them with food, so now’s probably good. Thanks, Cis.” He grabbed his antibiotics from his bathroom, re-joining Anita on the counter as he added a spoonful to the smoothie.

Cassie cringed as she caught a whiff of her drink. “I can literally _smell_ the coffee.”

“Yeah, well at least you’re not smelling fish and garlic,” Kon shot back.

“Yeah, but we have black beans and marshmallows.”

Cissie rolled her eyes, “They’re both bad.”

Bart piped up, “It’s food! How bad could it be?” He tipped back his glass.

They each winced as they chugged the entire glass. Bart’s complexion turned green and he sped off. In seconds, they heard loud sounds of retching from the next room. Cassie and Cissie both looked sick to their stomachs as they bent over the double-sink one after another. Tim and Anita, mostly unbothered beside the initial distaste, hopped off the counter and tied back their loose hair, looking over to Kon. He looked disgusted, but not ready to throw up. 

“How are you two _smiling_? Dude, that was _nasty_.”

Both shrugged. “I’ve had worse.” “You know I’ve had worse.” Tim and Anita high-fived at the simultaneous answers.

“Yeah, yeah. I just forgot.” And he had. Between Tim being Tim, and Anita just wanting to eat weird things, they had both _definitely_ tried worse than crappy smoothies, and every one of their friends knew it.

Cassie stood up first after emptying her stomach, grabbing a few water bottles out of the fridge. She tossed one to Kon, and then gave one to Cissie, who had slid to the floor dramatically. “We are _never_ doing that again.”

Bart appeared, getting a bottle from Cissie. “Ew…”

Anita gave them a smug smile. “How come we don’t get water?”

Cissie pointed two fingers at them. “You two can _suffer_.”

“Ah, yes, because we’re absolutely suffering right now.”

She didn’t have a response for that. “...Shut up, Tim. We just forgot you two had stronger stomachs than the _actual Man of Steel_.” She stood up on slightly wobbly legs, throwing the now mostly empty water bottle at Anita when she tried to tease her.

They each took turns changing back into their onesies, with Cissie and Anita matching in their Superman pjs. If Greta were there, she would have rounded out the set with her own Superman.

When they came out, Tim remembered his earlier purchases from the mall. “Hold on!” He emerged from his room moments later with the bag from the Disney store. “Use these.” He pulled out the blankets from the bag, distributing them among his friends.

Anita held up her Tiana blanket. “I want to complain, but this is just something you would do.”

Cissie wrapped herself up in her own Merida blanket, “What else was on the list?”

“Uh, sleepover games,” Cassie remembered.

“What about Truth or Dare?”

Cissie nodded, and then pointed at Tim. “ _You_. You have to calm down on the dares, though. Do any of you remember last time?”

Tim snickered as Kon, Anita, Bart, and Cassie all winced. “Tim, _no._ Your dares are insane! I forgot about that..”

“You chose this.” He tilted his head, “You know what? I think I’ll go first.”

“No!”

He ignored them, “Anita, truth or dare.”

“Truth. I’m not stupid.”

“Fine.” He tapped his chin. “If you had to use any of our costumes, past or present, who’s would you use?”

Bart made a sound of agreement, “That’s a good one!”

She thought about it for a minute. “Cissie’s? The red one with the hood.”

Tim looked surprised. “I thought you’d pick Bart’s.” Cassie and Conner’s suits weren’t really an option, given that they were just pants and shirts with no added protection.

“I was thinking about it, but nah.” Anita turned to Conner, “Truth or dare?”

He smirked, “Dare.”

“I dare you to wear one of our Superman onesies next time you fight.” The smirk slid off his face as the others began laughing again.

“ _‘Nita_ , that’s not fair.”

“Neither is life, mon. You don’t even have to worry about it not protecting you. You wear _jeans_.”

“Dude! I can’t go out in that! My _rep_.”

“What rep?”

“That’s a _you_ problem. You have to do the dare, you know the rules.” They’d changed up the forfeit rules, and now instead of simply switching to the other category, an embarrassment-based prank was played by all other players on whoever forfeited.

Conner crossed his arms. “I hate you,” he glared at Tim, and then turned to the giver of the dare, “and I hate you too,” before deciding, “and Bart, truth or dare.”

The speedster didn’t look too nervous. “Dare!”

“I dare you to call the new Robin and tell him that he’s a midget. You have to stay on the line until _he_ hangs up.” 

“Ooh!” Cissie was actually rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

Tim was frozen. “Okay, wow, that is a _really_ bad idea. Like, even for you. Do you not remember literally anything from when he was on the Titans?”

Conner ignored him, insisting, “He has to, it’s the rules.”

“No, you don’t get it. He will actually try and _kill_ you.” He’d mostly moved past it, but Damian still took ‘grievances to both his honor and to the honor of his family’ _very_ seriously.

“He’s a Bat. They don’t kill, right? It’d probably cause like, a Bat blood vessel to burst.”

Tim raised his hand in surrender. “Your funeral, Bart. Just keep me out of it.”

“I’ll try!” Bart picked up his rarely used cell phone, “What’s his number?”

Tim unlocked his phone, letting Bart search through it until he found what he needed. Bart dialed, and they waited in silence.

“ _Who is this? How did you get this phone number?_ ” It was spoken harshly.

Kon opened his mouth, but it was covered by Cassie.

Bart spoke, almost vibrating in place as he laughed out, “You’re a midget.”

“ _Who is this?”_ The kid sounded downright pissed.

“Your friendly neighborhood speedster!”

“ _Allen. Why are you contacting me?_ ”

“I just wanted to tell you that you’re a midget.”

“ _I will_ end _you. And you as well, Drake. I assume the clone is there as well._ ” The boy hung up after the ominous threat.

Tim let out the breath he’d been holding, feeling relieved. “Dick really is making progress with him.”

“ _That’s_ progress?” Cissie was incredulous.

“Oh yeah, definitely. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to actively search me out. Before, he would’ve made it his life’s goal to take me out. Plus, he said ‘end', not ‘kill’. _And_ , he probably couldn’t do it.”

“Dude.”

He was ignored, “Bart, it’s your turn.”

Bart chose Cissie. “Cissie, truth or dare!”

“Hm... I think I’ll do truth.”

“Finally! Why has no one picked truth except Anita?”

“Because it’s boring, Cassie.”

Anita added, “Also, we know mostly everything about each other.”

“True.” “She has a point.”

Bart cut in. “If you had superpowers, would you want mine, Cassie’s, Anita’s, or Kon’s?”

She ran a hand through her hair, contemplating. “I think I’d pick Conner’s. TTK would be useful.”

Before he could begin talking about his TTK, _for the millionth time_ , Cissie spoke over the Super. “I’m going to do Tim. Tim, truth or dare.”

“Dare, obviously.”

“I dare you to tie your blanket around your neck and wear it the next time you use your suit.”

He snorted at the mental image, accepting it with no protests. 

They got to do two more truths and a dare before a beeping came from Tim’s phone. He put a hand up to tell them not to speak, slipping a small comm into his ear. He turned it on, “Oracle?”

She sounded slightly stressed as she said, “ _I_ _need you to assist Nightwing. He’s been surrounded by about a hundred gang members. He’s attempting negotiations, and I know you’re busy, but you’re the only one nearby. Red Hood’s out of town, and Batman and Robin are on the other side of the city.”_ Kon relayed what she said to the others.

Tim’s face hardened. “Where?”

Cassie cut in. “You’re _not_ going without us.”

“Cassie, you can’t-” She ignored him, talking over his protests, “Oracle? Where is he?”

“ _About ten blocks east of you._ ”

“Tell him we’ll be there soon.” 

Tim tried to object, “Cass, you know how Bruce feels about metas. You guys can’t come. I can handle it.”

"Gotham or not, you're still a Titan, Tim. _We're your team._ "

Barbara reassured him, “ _I’ll deal with Bruce, Tim. Just go._ ”

Tim pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, we’ll be there soon.”

She cut the line, and Tim sprung into action. He started walking to the hidden door, saying the code as he pulled the lever in the fish tank. “If you’re coming, then head into the Nest when you’re done. I upgraded our comms, so you’ll need the new ones.”

Conner was already in his ‘suit’ when the others came in. Anita handed him her onesie, patting him on the back as she motioned for him to go back and put it on. Conner rolled his eyes, but left. By the time he made it back, everyone else was already ready, and Tim was handing out the new comms. Cassie unclasped his cape and tied the blanket around Tim’s neck, and he shot her a quick smile.

Bart hopped up and down for a moment. “Young Justice is back in business!”

“Just for tonight, Bart.” Cissie jumped on the back of Tim’s bike, but Anita was carried by Cassie. Luckily, neither of the two mostly-retired heroes had stopped exercising and were still in top form, so Tim didn’t have to worry any more than he usually would.

By the time Cissie and Tim got there, the others had already made excellent progress through the men. Tim couldn’t help but smile as he saw how flawlessly they all still fought together. The gang members were all knocked out in less than fifteen minutes. They chatted a bit until Nightwing came over. “Thanks, guys.” He squinted at their outfits, Tim and Kon in particular. “What are you two _wearing_?”

“A Rapunzel blanket,” Tim answered, acting as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. “Oh, and Superboy is wearing pajamas.”

“Okay..” Dick was still a bit confused, but he let it go to ask the other question on his mind, “I thought you and Empress retired, Arrowette?”

“I still help out occasionally. Empress was never fully retired, and we were _all_ in town and willing to help Red.”

“I didn’t know you were all still in touch.” Dick hadn’t really seen either Empress or Arrowette since Tim was fourteen.

Tim had to bite back the snippy retort on the tip of his tongue, instead giving a shrug. Arrowette dragged Tim back to his bike, whispering something into his ear that made the line of his shoulders relax as he laughed, unleashing a rarely-seen genuine smile from the normally grim Red Robin.

They sped off, once again leaving Dick behind. He put two fingers to his ear. “O?”

“ _Hm?_ ”

“Tim looks happy.”

“ _Yeah, his friends have a good effect on him._ ”

“I haven’t seen him smile like that in a while.”

“ _To be fair, you haven’t really seen him in a while._ ”

Dick spluttered as he left a note for the police and climbed the fire escape. “I saw him yesterday!”

“ _I_ _n costume. And it was unintentional. You only came to see what the fight was about._ ”

“It hasn’t been _that_ long, O.” He pulled out his personal phone, stopping on a roof. “I’m sure we’ve talked. It’s only been..” The man winced as he scrolled through his texts to see the timestamp on his last message to Tim. “... _two months_ ?” He had thought it had been a week, tops. But two months? He’d talked to _Jason_ two weeks ago. _Jason_. And Jason was still threatening him when he saw him.

“ _Read the message, Dick._ ”

‘ _Do you know anywhere fun to go? I need somewhere to take Damian this weekend._ ’ He winced. That was probably not the best message. Tim had responded with a fairly long list, and he could remember how much fun he’d had with Damian that day. The boy had loved everything that Tim had recommended.

Before that, there was nothing. Well, nothing before Tim had left to find Bruce. And that had been almost a year prior. “Oh..” Dick didn’t want to believe that it had been a _year_ since he’d last really talked to his little brother. Looking through his call logs, none of the calls they’d had had lasted for longer than two minutes.

“ _Mm-hm._ ” She sounded annoyed in that way that only Barbara could.

“What should I do?”

“ _I don’t know Dick. You broke the bond, you need to fix it. Not me._ ” There was a pause. “ _Hold on, I have to help Dinah._ ” She cut the line, leaving Dick alone with his thoughts.

Dick knew he had screwed up if _Barbara_ was irritated with him. He really needed to fix things with his little brother. Hadn’t Tim fixed up the old theater? Dick could’ve sworn he’d heard something about it from somewhere. He felt a wave of remorse as he realized that he barely even knew where his little brother _lived_. _That_ needed to change.

He connected with Bruce and Damian. “I’m ending my patrol early. Meet you back at the Cave.”

Bruce acknowledged it, ending the line. Damian sounded a bit worried, though he tried to cover it. “Are you injured, Grayson?”

“No, just… have to deal with something personal. Nothing dangerous, I promise.” Part of him wanted to tell Damian exactly what was wrong, but he didn’t think Tim would appreciate it if he showed up on his doorstep with Damian. There was still a bit of bad blood between them, so for now, it was just him.

“If you’re certain. Inform me when you return to the Manor.”

Dick couldn’t hide the small smile that appeared as he picked out the notes of concern hiding behind the small boy’s irritation.

Dick found his bike exactly where he’d left it a few blocks over. He rode to one of the numerous Bat safehouses, changing into civvies and stashing his suit. 

Less than twenty minutes later, he pulled up in front of the movie theater-turned apartment. He couldn’t see anything moving, but the lights were on, so he figured he’d be fine. Dick walked up the steps, startling a bit as he heard loud laughter coming from inside. He knocked, hearing Tim call out from somewhere semi-close to the door, “It’s probably the delivery guy.” Tim laughed at something inaudible, and then finally opened the door, still smiling. This time, Tim was the one in a onesie, a Flash onesie to be specific. Tim’s happy smile slid off his face as he saw who exactly was at the door. His gaze turned worried as he looked him up and down. “ _Dick_? What’s wrong? Is someone hurt? Did something happen on patrol?”

Dick shoved down the multiple questions surfacing at Tim’s confusion. Why didn’t Tim believe that Dick could ever just come to see him?

Oh right, _because Dick had never_ once _been to his home._ The former police officer put his hands in the air, “No one’s hurt, little brother. I just came to see you.” As he spoke, Dick noticed a giant blanket tent behind him, in what must have been the living room. It was probably where the rest of them were. He had to admit, the place looked nice. There were a few bowls of different snacks and candy on the large counter, and he could see a piano in the farthest bit of the living room, along with framed photos scattered around the entire room.

Tim cut into his examination of the place. “Do you need help with something? ‘Cause if not, I’m a little busy..” As if to punctuate that, there was a call from the living room.

“Tim, are you coming? I’m hungry!” That was Impulse, Dick remembered.

Tim looked torn as he looked outside the door. “Uh, you know what? Just come in. We can’t talk out here.”

As Dick stepped in the door, Tim called out, “Guys, Dick’s here..”

He heard Superboy, Conner, call, “ _Nightwing_ Dick?”

There was a scoff, and then Dick heard someone ask, “Would he know any others?”

“Geez, no. I was just wondering.” Dick looked back over to Tim, who had his head in his hands.

“Guys. Please, shut up.” Five sheepish faces peeked out, but Arrowette, Cassie, and Conner were all glaring at him.

Wonder Girl broke the silence, “If you want Tim to help you with something, you have about ten minutes, because he’s not allowed to work on anything for the next week.”

Tim shot back, “I told you those laws don’t apply to me. _I’m special_.”

“Nuh-uh! You agreed!”

Dick rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Uh, I was actually hoping to talk to Tim, but if it’s a bad time….”

Tim had some sort of silent conversation with his friends, consisting mostly of raised eyebrows and glares. He gave an awkward wave to Impulse and Empress, the only two who weren’t mentally arguing with Tim. Finally, Tim looked triumphant. He walked over to the fish tank, and reached in for some reason. Dick held out a hand, trying to figure out what he was doing, when Tim announced, “Open sesame.”

The wall opened up, leaving Dick feeling awed. “Woah, Timmy, that’s really cool.”

Impulse called out from behind them, “Of course it’s cool! Tim made it.”

Dick gave him an absent nod as he looked around the newly discovered bunker/base of operations in appreciation. He saw Tim say, “No super-hearing, Kon!” before he shut the passageway, leaving them in the base.

“So what did you need to talk about? Intel? Does Bruce need anything?” He sat down at his computer, giving Dick a business-like smile, “Because, no offense, but if you take too long, they’re all going to come in here.”

Dick felt a bit off-guard with how unruffled Tim looked at both Dick’s sudden appearance, and at dropping everything to work. Looking closer, he could see that something was off about the boy, but couldn’t pick it out. “I… I just wanted to see if you wanted to go do something. Not now, of course, your friends are here, but maybe tomorrow?”

Tim looked utterly bewildered. “Uh, what?”

“Tim, I checked my messages. We haven't really talked since- you know, everything.”

Oh. Tim waved his hand dismissively. “It’s fine, Dick. You were busy with Damian and stuff.”

“Not _that_ busy, Tim. I could’ve made time.” Dick gestured to the giant room both were standing in. “I didn’t even know all of this existed!”

“Dick, I’m pretty sure that the only people that _do_ know about this place are the people in my living room and Barbara. And Greta. Also maybe Traya and Red? But it’s not a big deal.” Tim made a mental note to call Red and Traya with the others sometime that week. They hadn’t talked to him much at all since he married Kathy.

The older man ran a hand over his face. “That’s the point. We’re supposed to be _family_ , Tim.” Dick hadn’t even known that Tim was still in contact with Red Tornado. At least, that’s who he thought was ‘Red’. Traya was his daughter, right?

Tim opened his mouth to say something, but shook his head. “It’s fine, Dick. _We’re_ fine, I promise.” Tim gave Dick a reassuring smile. “We can hang out, just not right now.” Tim looked at the door, a pinched look coming to his face.

“Tim-”

Getting up, Tim opened the door, revealing all his friends standing outside it. He gave Superboy an admonishing look.

“I said _not_ to use your super-hearing.”

“Yeah, but I never agreed to it.” Conner threw an arm around his friend, prompting Cassie to do the same.

Tim looked completely exasperated, sandwiched between the two superhumans. At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Bart cheered. 

Cissie rolled her eyes. “I’ll get it.” Halfway there, she turned around on her heel. “Where’s the moneybox?”

“Lift the hook on the door and then turn it to the right. And don’t forget-” “-to make sure it’s American money. Yes, Tim, I know. You say it _every time_.”

Tim facepalmed. “I forgot to order drinks, and we used all the actual smoothie stuff for the challenge. Bart, can you get some? Grab some cash from the box.”

Bart gave him a sloppy salute and an, “Aye aye, Captain!” before disappearing.

Dick watched all of this with a weird feeling in his chest. After a minute, he registered more than one pair of eyes on him, and the silence was beginning to stagnate, so he decided to leave. “I’m just… gonna let myself out.”

He heard Cassie mutter something that made Anita and Conner let out sounds of amusement, but made Tim tell her to cut it out.

Cissie was already walking back in with what had to be a ridiculous amount of food when he reached the door. As he shut it behind him, he heard a burst of chatter, and then Tim reassured his friends. “I’m fine! He just wanted to talk to me. He said he missed me.”

As Dick got on his motorcycle, he pushed the button that would activate the recording bug he’d left on the base of the lamp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did Dick's characterization make sense? I was worried a bit about the way I wrote him, but I feel like he's a bit of a silent observer when he wants to be.


	5. Bats, Supers, Speedsters, Amazons, Retirees, and... Bugs?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. It's been a week, obviously. I'm not fully sure how I feel about this chapter? It's okay, but it was a bit forced, not gonna lie. 
> 
> I FINALLY read the Teen Titans comics, yesterday actually, and I've edited a few of the past chapters to match up with anything else I add, so if they seem different, that's why. I've changed up the dynamics a bit, mostly due to the new information.
> 
> As always, if you spot any inconsistencies, grammar errors, or just things that would be better if they were changed a bit, let me know! I might not accept all of them, but I'll definitely change it if there's a legitimate error. Grammarly can't find everything!

The next morning, Anita was the first one up. She didn’t bother waking up the others, instead choosing to do some easy stretches and enjoy the quiet without two toddlers yelling or crying. 

After checking the time, she realized that the others would probably want to be up. She shook awake Cissie, then Cassie and the three of them woke up the boys. Cassie made sure to handle waking up Tim, as he tended to wake up with an attack after a nightmare, one of which he’d had not too long after he first fell asleep. True to form, he shot up with a choked off scream and a fist punching her jugular. She gagged a little but held him still until he woke up fully.

Once all of the boys were awake, they had Bart pick up some quick breakfast from Metropolis. He didn’t change out of the pajamas, simply adding some sneakers over the feet.

As she grabbed a piece of bacon, Anita asked, “What should we do now? We finished the list.” Tim gestured to the flatscreen. “Yeah, but we can watch movies later. We _never_ all hang out.”

Cissie clapped. “I know what we can do!”

Bart looked curious, “What?”

“Get Tim some furniture. This place looks like a catalog.” After they cleaned it, it had. Tim usually left his home a bit of a mess, given how little time he spent there. Most of his time was split between Titan’s Tower and his Nest, while the apartment itself went mostly unused.

“Ooh yes! This place is so boring!”

Tim gave a dry look around the room, “There’s literally a giant pillow fort in the living room.”

Cassie ignored him, “We’ve been trying!” She rubbed her hands together, wanting to let out a supervillain-esque laugh for effect. “This is perfect. You pretend to be so _boring_. This place looks like one of your safehouses, except for the pictures.” Tim had put up framed copies of selfies and pictures he’d taken with various groups of friends around his apartment, and it did a decent job of sprucing up the black-and-white rooms.

Tim threw a jelly packet at her, complaining, “Why do you bully me? My place _usually_ looks lived-in.”

Cassie raised an eyebrow as she caught it. “We’re your friends, that’s practically our _job_. ‘Lived-in’ doesn’t have to mean a mess. Your room is the messiest in the whole _Tower_.”

Bart waited for Tim to give his half-baked comeback before clarifying, “So, we’re buying Tim new stuff?”

“No.” “Yes!”

Tim threw another jelly packet, this one aimed at Cissie’s forehead. “Bullies.”

She glared at him as it hit her between the eyes. “Shut up, Tim. You get no say. Where are we going?” 

Cassie squinted, “Didn’t you tell us about an IKEA opening up?”

“Oh, yeah! You were talking about that for like, a week! All the new jobs and stuff.” Bart sounded excited, “We should get stuff there!”

“Guys, I can’t get stuff from IKEA, I’m a CEO. My home has to look a certain way.”

“It has to look _nice_ , mon, not boring. There’s no color! Live a little. Plus, if you need to do a meeting or something, just go to a restaurant. Your place should make you happy.”

Tim blinked. He hadn’t ever had a meeting in his apartment, which was originally why he’d furnished it that way in the first place, instead of the posters and comic books he had stored in his previous rooms, and the one in the Titans home base. But his apartment still had to look nice, right?

_Screw it._

He sighed heavily. “Fine, but we’re not filling my apartment with primary colors.” There was a group cheer. “Could you be any louder? I’m pretty sure Cass couldn’t hear you in Hong Kong.”

Anita smirked, “You know we _could_ do it louder..”

“Please don’t.”

As Tim was getting dressed, Kon opened the door and threw something bright at him. Opening it up, he saw a t-shirt that read, ‘If lost, return to my friends’. He gave him a dry look. “Seriously?”

Bart poked his head in, “Ours go with it!” He showed off his own neon green shirt that read, ‘We’re his friends’. Tim would bet his left foot that each of the others had the same shirt as Bart. He looked up to the ceiling as if asking heavens for strength as he slipped the shirt over his head. He grabbed the glasses he’d worn to the mall and walked out to his living room. True to form, the others all had matching shirts, and all were in the same blinding green.

Tim facepalmed. “Who’s idea was this? Cassie’s? Bart?” It would be like her to try and keep them all together, but the shirts were a bit too bright for her to have picked on her own.

“Nope, it was mine!” Cissie had a crap-eating grin on her face.

He sighed in false exasperation and gave a gesture towards the garage. “Just... let’s go.”

“Shut up, you can’t even talk. You literally made us all wear shirts with _my face_ on them last time.” Tim didn’t even try to suppress the smile that broke open over his face.

“That was some of my best work. You have to admit it.”

“ _My face._ ”

“As a fan of Cissie King-Jones, I need to represent.”

Tim dodged the remote that she threw at him.

They played a few songs, and a half-hour later, they were pulling into the parking lot on the edge of Metropolis. Tim turned around in his seat, “Okay, what’s the game plan?”

“Tim, you’re the strategist.”

“Uh-uh. Cass, you take over. You guys are the ones that wanted to change it in the first place.”

Cassie nodded. “So... we basically need everything.”

“Wha- no, we just need a few-”

She spoke louder to cover his protests, “We basically need everything. The couch is alright, so that can stay. But we need pillows, a new kitchen table and chairs, and some new bedding. And decorations. No offense, but your apartment is really, _really_ boring.”

He ignored her, adding, “I’m getting a couple of those roller beds for the other two rooms, though. And one for mine. That way we don’t have to set up the air mattresses every time someone stays over.”

“Fair.” Now that Cissie was in New York, and not California, they’d probably end up hanging out at Tim’s place more often than not, so it was a good idea either way.

Cissie cut in, “Since your apartment is so modernish, you should get a bunch of plants and stuff.”

Tim thought about it for a minute before agreeing. “Yeah, that’s actually a decent idea.”

Going inside, they grabbed three of the flat carts. Passing Smallworld, Conner snorted, “Cassie, you should go in there.”

“Shut up, Kon. You’re the tallest, we get it.” Cassie wasn’t _sore_ about her 5’3” status. Not one bit.

Bart plopped down on Kon’s cart before he could answer. Cissie sat down on Cassie’s, allowing herself to be pushed around. Anita, the last one with an empty cart, wiggled her eyebrows at Tim.

“For the record, when you said we were going to IKEA, we were supposed to buy _furniture_. This is not at all what I had in mind.” He sat down with his arms crossed.

Cissie snorted from her cart. “Don’t lie. This is exactly what you had in mind.”

He uncrossed his arms, gripping the sides of the platform he was sitting on, “Just push the cart, Anita.”

“You got it!” She took off _fast_ , forcing Tim to hold on to the platform portion for dear life.

“Anita!”

She laughed, ignoring him as she moved faster, trying to keep ahead of the other two carts, which were now gaining ground.

“You’re going to get us kicked out!”

Cassie spoke over the screeching of the cheap metal wheels. “Wouldn’t be the first time!”

Tim laughed, still speeding through the store. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time, and it almost 100% wouldn’t be the last. He could remember the Walmart in Happy Harbor, and the 7/11 near Anita’s house. And almost every store open after 8 o’clock within five square miles of Titans Tower.

Anita made a sharp turn, making Tim tumble off his cart. He minimized the damage with a roll, but he sprawled out on the ground after, looking defeated. Anita had whirled around almost immediately after he fell. He could hear the others laughing and taking pictures around him, but he ignored them as he basked in his own misery. “ _Why me_? Why was I stuck with you people? I have an _image._ ”

“I can’t believe, can’t _believe,_ that _you_ are trying to act like the responsible one. Mon, you’re _way_ crazier than the rest of us.”

He raised a finger disapprovingly, still refusing to get up as he spoke. “I know how to hide my crazy. I never get caught.”

“Yeah, but you can’t say that we’re the crazy ones. You stole a Batmobile.”

“And who crashed it? Not me.” Anita rolled her eyes, pushing the cart right next to him. “Nuh-uh. I’m in _pain_. I want a piggyback ride.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. You did this to me, and now I can’t walk.”

“Fine, _Oshi_.” She turned around, letting him onto her back. The other four continued in front on their carts. He heard Bart and Conner begin talking to Cissie about something that she’d been working on after graduation.

Tim asked Cassie, “What section are we going to?”

“Uh, the map says the living room stuff should be coming up soon.”

Within minutes of reaching it, one of the carts was almost full, and Tim was facepalming from Anita’s back.

“Guys.”

“Tim.”

“I literally can’t have Red Robin merch.” It could compromise his identity, and they all knew it.

“Fine.” They put it back, replacing it with Superboy, Wonder Girl, and Impulse merchandise.

“You’re going to put it all up, aren’t you?” Anita looked up to the boy on her shoulders.

“Oh, definitely. I didn’t even know they sold superhero stuff in IKEA.” The worker they’d ran into said that it was a Metropolis special since there were so many superheroes and superhero fans in the area. Tim thought it was hilarious and was absolutely delighted to put it all up around his home. They had bedsheets, framed art, and even some pillows with the different versions of their symbols. He counted off what they’d come for on his fingers. “Sheets, decorations, the beds… what else do we need?”

“Uh, a table, right?"

* * *

Dick found them fooling around in the kid’s section. Tim, his little brother _,_ who he apparently hadn’t spoken to in months, was sitting on Empress’ shoulders, laughing his head off while Impulse gestured wildly, describing something that Dick couldn’t make out. The boy’s lips were moving way too fast to read, and Dick wanted to know what was making him laugh so hard. 

But for now, he was content to just watch. His little brother looked so happy, still smiling as he discussed whatever it was with the speedster. 

He saw the moment Tim noticed him. His head turned to the side, a cursory glance, and his smile froze. “ _Dick_?” The sound was somewhat incredulous, making the man wince.

Dick gave an embarrassed smile and wave. “Hey Timmy.”

The others were glaring at him again, but this time mostly Cassie and Conner. Tim ran a hand down his face, even as Empress's crouched down to let him get off. Tim spoke up from where he was now standing on the ground with Conner and Empress. “Did you follow us?”

“Me? I was getting a new kitchen table for Alfred.”

Tim’s eyes bugged. “Why? What happened to the old one? Alfred _loved_ that table.” It was a Wayne family heirloom.

“Uh… I may or may not have flipped onto one of the weak points. And then the leg cracked. And then Damian came after me with his sword, and we destroyed the rest of it.” Tim winced hard. Poor Alfred. Dick continued, “What are _you_ doing here?”

Conner smirked. “Tim’s place is boring, so we’re buying him all new furniture.”

Tim turned around, giving his best friend a dirty look, “We are not getting all new furniture. Just a kitchen table and a coffee table. And roller beds for you guys.”

Dick perked up, “If we’re both getting tables, I could just come with you!” Tim’s face flashed with something unreadable before it locked back down into that easygoing smile.

“Sure.” Three out of the other five’s eyes bugged at the response.

They dragged Tim away, a couple of feet. Dick couldn’t hear them talking, but he _could_ read their lips.

Empress was saying, ‘ _I_ _t’ll be fine._ ’ Bart shrugged, obviously fine with the intrusion.

Cassie argued back, ‘ _No, this was_ our _week. Tim, you got Anita a babysitter for a full_ week _. And you both need this! We never see each other anymore!'_

Tim’s back was turned, so Dick couldn’t see what he was saying, only that his shoulders slumped for a moment, before returning to their usual posture. Whatever it was made Conner grin like a Cheshire cat. He agreed with whatever Tim had said, nodding hard, along with Impulse and Arrowette. Cissie. Dick had remembered that.

Cissie seemed to be the one talking, but the angle she was turned at didn’t allow him to make it out.

Cassie sighed, _heavily_ , but agreed with whatever Tim said. The four walked back to Dick. He looked up when they got closer.

Tim had that same smile plastered back onto his face.

“Hey Timmy, you ready?”

Conner once again threw an arm around Tim’s shoulder. “Yeah, we’re definitely ready.” In a mix of TTK and pure strength, he hoisted Tim onto his shoulders with a single move. Dick reached out, opening his mouth to protest, but Cassie waved him off. Both she and Empress were watching it as if it was an everyday thing. Dick wasn’t sure whether to intervene or not, but he decided to leave it for then.

Tim looked taken off-guard. Dick saw his hand move as if to whack his friend on the heard, but it stopped halfway, presumably by TTK. He hissed into Conner’s ear, at a volume they could all hear, “Conner, _let me down_. This is _not_ what I meant.” Conner grinned, holding him in place with his TTK, barely giving him any leeway whatsoever. Only his neck and head were moveable. The clone completely ignored him, grabbing one of the carts that had been left off to the side. Tim continued, beginning threats that quickly escalated even as the others began laughing quietly to themselves. The two girls waved Dick along. Tim was still giving his best friend’s head a death glare, “Kon-El, you are _dead_. Enjoy your last days, because as soon as this sleepover ends, I am going to _destroy_ your entire life. It will be in _ashes_ when I'm done.”

Cassie rolled her eyes, “Tim, shut up. You need to loosen up anyway.”

“I _will_ do it.” Tim’s arm twitched a bit, and he sighed. “Fine, I won’t. Mostly. I’m still going to get you for this. I have methods.” He leaned down a bit, whispering something into the boy’s ear. From the side, Dick watched Conner’s mouth fall open, and his grip on Tim faltered, allowing the boy to jump down. Tim gave Conner a smug look, dusting fake dirt off his shoulder.

Conner seemed to be having trouble forming words. “Are you joking?”

Tim shook his head, “I know things.” Cassie leaned over, still walking.

“Is it the-?” Tim nodded, and her eyes lit up. “You totally should.”

Conner gave both a betrayed look, even as Empress, Cissie, and Bart continued to laugh at him.

Dick had to ask, “What’s going on?”

Cassie was the only one to answer him. “Tim just gave Conner a _very_ creative mix of a threat and blackmail, combined with something very, _very_ stupid that he did.”

Dick couldn’t help it. He was intrigued. Tim never did anything _too_ stupid, at least where Dick could see. Tim had always been the responsible Robin. “What is it?” Before she could answer, Tim clapped a hand over her mouth. Cassie pried the hand off with one finger.

 _“Cass, don’t you dare_.” There was a serious note to his voice.

She sighed, “Fine...” Dick felt disappointment crawl up his spine. He looked between the six teenagers. Tim looked satisfied, Conner looked like he was still processing whatever Tim had told him, and Cassie, Cissie, Impulse, and Empress looked like they were smothering laughter.

Impulse broke off, pointing at something. “That one!”

Tim took one look at it, and said, “ _No_ ,” with conviction. It was a small, green, plastic table that looked like it belonged in a playroom.

“Aw, but Tim...”

“ _No_.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I literally told you guys ‘we’re not filling my apartment with primary colors’.”

“Green is a secondary color!” Bart agreed with Conner as they did their best to convince him to buy the table.

“The shade makes it a primary color.”

“Wait, really?” Conner looked genuinely confused, but Bart looked skeptical.

“Well, no, but I’m glad _you_ believed in me,” Tim said dryly.

Cassie flinched, “Tim, I thought we were past that, it's been a year, and you said it was okay, no grudges, no nothing...” 

His eyes widened. “Oh- no, Cass, I didn’t mean it like that. Bad word choice. You’re forgiven, I promise. Been forgiven since before you apologized, honestly.” He gave her a reassuring pat on the back. Impulse, who had looked confused at first, mouthed an ‘ _ohh.'_ to Cissie. The rest were having the same looks of realization.

“Yeah, but I still feel bad about it.”

“You apologized as soon as I got back to the Tower. We’re good, we’ve _been_ good.” She still didn’t look like she believed him, but decided to let it go. Tim changed the subject, “What kind of table should I get? Round? Big?”

There was a sudden chorus of answers, from a hexagonal table to the left, back to the same green table that Impulse had just pointed out.

Dick thought he had just gotten whiplash from the sudden topic change. It was a common misconception that Dick’s upbeat attitude meant that he was stupid. He was most definitely not.

There was something, something big that they’d all been skating around.

Empress pointed to a dark wooden table. “What about that one?”

Tim stepped closer, looking it up and down. He bent underneath it, checking it from all angles. “Yeah, good pick. This is actually not bad.”

She crossed her arms, “As always, I am the only reasonable one.”

Impulse piped up, “Cissie and Cassie too!”

Tim agreed, “True, it must be a girl thing. They have to be awesome.” Literally every girl Tim had ever been closer to than an acquaintance had been absolutely _fierce_. Between Barbara, Stephanie, Tam, Cassie, Cissie, Anita, and his girlfriends, there were literally none that wouldn’t trample everything in their path.

“And don’t you forget it.” They laughed, Bart writing down the information for the table.

“Oh,” Tim looked to his older brother, who had mostly kept quiet, “Hey Dick, didn’t you need to get a table?”

“Hm? Oh yeah.” He looked around. “Which one do you think Alfred would like?”

“Honestly? Probably the one Anita picked for me.”

So her name was Anita. Dick shrugged, “If you say so.” He grabbed one of the little notepads, scribbling down the identification.

Conner looked at the table again, “Wouldn’t your chairs still look good with this?”

Cissie squinted at it. “Yeah, actually.”

Tim looked at them, a smug grin on his face. “So you’ll admit that I do have good taste?”

“No, you have _your mom's_ taste in _furniture_. _Your_ taste sucks.” Tim couldn’t think of a better retort, so he just stuck his tongue out at him.

Meanwhile, Dick was once again confused. “Your mom?”

Conner piped up again, “Yeah, she was a real-” Tim jabbed him in the side lightly with his elbow, making him stop talking, even though it hadn't hurt in the slightest.

“ _Don’t finish that_.”

Bart answered Dick’s question. “Tim’s mom was a jerk, and we don't like her. But more his dad. His dad _sucked_.”

“Bart!”

“What? She was.”

Cissie beaned him over the head with a tube of chapstick. “Just because his parents sucked doesn’t mean he doesn’t love them, Bart. I still love my mom.”

Tim chimed in with an, “Exactly! And they weren’t bad.” The others, who had been nodding along, let out a groan at his attempt at justification.

Dick was absolutely confused. “Wait, what? Tim, you said your parents were great, if a bit distant.”

“Yes, yes they were!” The glares from earlier returned to Dick tenfold.

“His parents were _not_ fine.” “They were as bad as Cissie’s mom!” “Tim’s parents were- ow, crap Cassie-”

Tim glared at his friends. “They were great.” He clamped a hand over Bart’s mouth. “Ignore them.”

“Um, no, do not ignore us,” Bart said, having wiggled out of his hands.

“Yes, do ignore them,” he countered, looking at his older brother with a look.

Conner, already out of Tim’s grip, sighed. “Tim, I thought you were getting it.”

“Can we _not_ do this here?” He seemed genuinely desperate to not talk about it right then.

“Fine, but you need to talk about that stuff,” Cissie sighed, leaving Dick once again disappointed. He figured it was probably something to be discussed in private, though, so he left it for now. In fact, he’d found himself doing that more than he’d like. Jeez, what _did_ he know about Tim? Apparently, his ‘loving parents’, in the words of Impulse, ‘sucked’, and were as bad as Mrs. King-Jones, someone that Dick had had the unfortunate displeasure of meeting back in Tim’s Young Justice days. Dick could remember Tim talking about how great he was before the man died. Also, Tim had most certainly _not_ lost the sense of humor he used to have. When he’d come back from the search for Bruce, Tim had been all business, no smiles, and somewhat of a big-time vigilante. Whenever Dick had tried to crack a joke, Tim hadn’t really given more than a small smile or a quiet snort. But here he was, well not _now_ , but he’d been laughing as hard as he ever had with his friends. Friends that Dick hadn’t even known Tim was still in touch with. Had Tim been replaced by a pod person with a different backstory?

Dick needed to process. He fiddled with his phone, opening an app, and pressing a button. The bug would pick up anything they said once they were back at Tim’s, so it should be fine. Since he’d already found the table for Alfred, he technically had everything he needed. Citing an excuse, he wrapped up the interaction, saying goodbyes as he left the small group on their own once more.

Bart looked around the wall to see if Dick had really left. “He’s gone!”

“Oh good!” Cassie whirled on Tim. “What do you mean, ‘they were fine’? Your parents _sucked_.”

He pointed at her. “We are _not_ talking about my _dead_ _parents_ here. Dick or not, this is a _store_.”

She huffed. “Fine.”

They moved through the checkout quickly, and for the most part, silently. During the car ride, there was a silence from Tim and Cassie that was mostly filled by Bart interacting with the others.

* * *

Entering the apartment, Cassie put down the table box she’d been carrying, “Okay, _now_ we can talk.”

Tim set down the things he’d been holding, sighing. “Just go ahead.”

Conner walked in just as she opened her mouth. He grimaced, dropping the beds in favor of sticking his fingers in his ears. “Does anyone else hear that?”

Cassie paused, “Hear what?”

“That- ugh, it’s really annoying. It’s like, quiet, but it’s super high-pitched, like those bugs you used to use, but a little different.”

Tim furrowed his brows. He knew for a fact nothing had been left on in the Nest, and none of the other things in his apartment had ever really bothered Conner. He’d even changed all his Bat-brand equipment when he’d found out that the frequency of his bugs had been irritating him. “Where’s it coming from?”

“The lamp.” Tim walked over, lifting it as he looked it over. He made a quiet sound of irritation as he saw what it was.

Tim held up a small black device, pressing a button on it. “Is this it?”

“Yeah. What is it?"

“ _This_ is a recording bug. One of the newer ones.” He knew that there had been a system upgrade, but since Tim made most of his own equipment, it hadn't really affected him.

Cissie gasped, “Do you think…?”

“That Dick put it here last night? Definitely.” He squinted at it, trying to remember what they’d said the night prior.

“What’d he hear?”

Tim shrugged, closing his eyes tightly. “I don’t know. I should’ve run a scan last night after he left, but I didn’t think he’d have time..”

“Not your fault.”

“Yes it is, Anita. I should’ve known. He’s a _Bat_. Planting bugs to find out what you don’t know is like second nature.”

Bart turned on his heel. “How come Kon didn’t hear it until now?”

“...I don’t know. The high-pitched thing is always there as long as it’s recording. He should've heard it before.”

Cissie tried to soothe, “Maybe he just turned it on?”

“Maybe. I just deactivated it right now.”

“Are there any more?”

Tim handed the one in his hand to Conner, who crushed it between two fingers. “I’ll be back in a bit. You guys can..” He made a vague gesture to the furniture boxes on the floor. “..do that.” He spun around, walking into his Nest.

Cassie moaned, “Why did Nightwing have to do that? Now we’re never going to get anywhere with Tim!”

“I vote we get revenge.” Cissie sounded vindictive as she picked up a knife to open one of the boxes.

“How?” Anita sounded a bit too eager.

Cissie rubbed her chin, “I’m not sure, _yet_ , but Tim’s not going to just go along with it. Nothing physical. Just emotional pain.” She passed Cassie the instruction manual.

“Like what?”

“Conner, didn’t Tim spend Christmas in the Tower?”

“The morning. He came to the farm later. Why?”

She rubbed her hands together. "That's perfect. Nightwing’s an emotional person. We can use that. His little brother feeling so estranged that he couldn’t even come home for Christmas? _That_ will make him guilty. We just need a few more real things that'll make him feel bad, and then we can start making things up."

Conner waved a hand over her. “You, are _scarily_ vindictive.”

“Only a little. It’s too bad that Tim can’t get in on it. He’s the _best_ at revenge.”

The half-Kryptonian raised an eyebrow as he picked up a table leg. “ _I_ know that. How do _you_ know that?”

Cissie rolled her eyes. “We talk every once in a while. He helped me come up with petty ways to get back at my mom.”

“That sounds like something he’d do.”

“Yup. Back to the plan though. What do you guys think?”

"We're just gonna tell him a bunch of bad stuff that happened to Tim?" Bart sounded a bit disappointed.

“No, we’re going to tell him things that ‘happened to Tim’. _And_ , you and Kon can let loose on your pranks.” Conner grinned as Bart pumped his fist. 

“What about me and Anita?"

“ _You_ are going to help by telling me everything that’s happened to him in the last… nine months, and then Anita can help me with set-up and keeping Tim away.” She grinned at the two girls, all five sharing the same malicious smile. “We’re going to get revenge for _everything_ he did to Tim.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I had to make references to my childhood. The green table was a _staple_ when I was little. I'm fairly certain my parents still have it somewhere in their house. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/74/af/cf/74afcfa1229737a060d10a7c01584e79.jpg


	6. Petty Revenge is the Best Kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim's friends decide to get... creative with their revenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *adele voice* Hello..
> 
> I said I would update once a week, but I really meant that I was going to have a new au idea and completely abandon everything else in my life to work on it obsessively.
> 
> Anyway, sorry for the short chapter, but it was all I could get out this week. Hopefully I'll have something better for you later.

Each of them had their own love language, whether it be platonic or romantic. Each of the group was well-attuned to each of their friends’ emotional needs. Bart and Conner preferred quality time. They liked to spend time with their friends, and it was their favorite way of showing affection. They’d drop in at all hours, just to watch a movie, or play a game. Of course, Conner usually called to chat, while Bart would physically join you wherever you were. They all accepted it and tried to acclimate it as best as they could. Cassie preferred acts of service, along with Anita. Having someone help them with something was just the way they preferred to receive love, whether it be with a mission, homework, or a babysitter for the night. Cissie liked gifts. It made her feel cherished. If they cared enough to simply get something for you out of the blue, just because they _thought_ of you, she figured that it couldn’t be anything _but_ love. Greta _needed_ physical touch. After her time as Secret, she still occasionally had trouble remembering that she was now corporeal. It was easily accommodated and was simply part of their routine. When seeing Greta, they gave her hugs, held her hand, put hands on her shoulders, all of it. It was just how they worked. Tim was a mixture of both touch and words. Physical touch was something that made Tim lighten. They couldn’t put it into words, but he just.... _lightened_ when getting a hug, a pat on the back, a cuddle. The others theorized that it was a product of his upbringing, and accepted it wholeheartedly. Tim’s other preferred way of receiving love was words. Words could build up, or tear down, and were one of the most powerful things in the world. Words could topple empires, or inspire their creation. So yes, Tim liked words. But not in the typical way. He liked familiarity in words. Teasing, bantering, all of that was crucial to him. Harsh words from the people he loved were one of the few things that could break him.

And that was how the Bats had broken him.

Bruce had _verbally_ beaten him down after Captain Boomerang.

Dick had tried to _tell_ him that he was going crazy.

Stephanie had _lied_ to him. About so much. But he’d lied too. Tim could accept that, and move on. They would never have worked out, and he was okay with that.

Jason and Damian had never been close enough to truly hurt him. Both of them could craft excellent insults, but with no real personal connection, the wounds hadn’t stung for long. Well, the emotional wounds. The stabs, bruises, and bullet holes he’d gotten from those encounters hurt for a lot longer. Jason had been his hero, sure, but they’d never had an actual relationship.

Which was why they weren’t being included in the revenge plans that they’d been crafting.

Well, they weren’t _actively_ involving the other two either. But if they happened to get in the way? _Collateral damage_.

Cassie had called Gar, and he’d offered to help them however he could. She had honestly been surprised that he’d do that, but apparently he was still pissed off that Dick had put Damian onto the team without asking them. She relayed the contents of the call to her friends, squinting at the wall as she remembered a few things. “So we have him staying at the Tower for Christmas, and maybe that explosion he got caught in a few months ago. What else?”

Cissie shrugged. “I don’t know. You three are the active heroes. I only know what you tell me.”

“Same here. You know how he is. Bart’s the one who fills me in.”

“Alright… Bart, Conner, got anything?”

“He usually just gets small injuries.” Cuts, bruises, nothing that stayed around for too long.

“True.”

“So use emotional pain.”

“He’s been pretty stable since he came back.” It was surprising, really. They’d expected him to break down at least once after that whole thing, but he hadn’t. Not since before he left. He’d come back colder, and a bit more hardened, but he was still the same Tim.

Cissie made a sour face. “I don’t know whether to be happy or annoyed-”

“Happy.”

She gave him a dirty look. “Duh, Conner, but it’s not exactly helping the plan. We’ll just have to start making things up.” The archer snapped her fingers. “Has he pulled off anything dangerous? He doesn’t have to be hurt, but just nearly.”

Cassie just about laughed out loud. Conner did. “Cis, it’s _Tim_. He does stupid crap once a week.”

Bart chimed in, “Yeah, last weekend he jumped out of a skyscraper that was about to explode. I caught him before he hit the ground, though.”

Anita looked skeptical. “How’d _you_ catch him? You don’t have superstrength, Bart.”

“Yeah, but I figured out how to make this tornado thing if I run fast enough.” 

“So you’re telling me, that Tim jumped off _an exploding skyscraper_ , and you caught him by _making a tornado._ ”

“Yup.”

“Wow.”

Conner interjected, “I don’t think this plan’s going to work on Nightwing. Danger’s kind of part of the job, right? He knows that, and Tim knows that.”

“True. Dang. I mean, the injuries will still work, but if he didn’t get actually _hurt_ , it’s kind of par for the course.”

“What if we had fun with it? Like a different type of revenge?”

“How?"

Anita grinned, shifting her feet from where she’d been sitting on them. “We could do really petty revenge. Like, we could gift-wrap all his food so he can’t tell what’s what… put cling wrap on all his doorways, food coloring in his shower. Stuff like that.”

Bart’s eyes lit up. “I can do that!”

Cassie matched Bart’s smile with her own. “Let’s make a list. What’ve we got?”

The dark-skinned girl listed them back off. “Gift-wrapping his stuff, plastic wrap on his doorways, and dye in his shower.”

Cissie added, “Freeze his keys in a block of ice. I did it to my mom a few times before I moved out.”

“Ooh, that’s perfect.” 

Bart thought back over all the pranks he’d pulled. “We could put stickers all over his bathroom. Those ones that little kids use. And put sticky-notes on his car. And steal little things. Like the batteries out of his remote, the lightbulbs, his phone charger, and switch his salt and sugar.”

Conner gave him a high-five. “Nice one!”

Cassie chewed on the top of her pen. "Are we doing it all at once, or one at a time?"

"If we do it one at a time, we might get caught."

"So all at once?"

"It makes the most sense. But we'll add things later."

Bart looked around the circle from where they'd been slowly assembling the kitchen table. "Shouldn't I do it? I can get in and out in a few minutes. You guys would take an hour or two." He looked around for confirmation.

"Yeah, and then we can all distract Tim. We couldn't all go anyway. If we all disappeared, he'd get way too suspicious. You disappear all the time."

Bart thought about it and agreed quickly. “Should I grab a camera?” The ones from the Nest weren’t really an option at the moment, given that Tim was in there, but there were plenty in the Tower.

“I _really_ want to see it, but it’s not a good idea. He’ll see it.” Bart pouted, but let it go.

“Are we sure about this? Nightwing’s a _Bat_. I don’t want him to get mad at Tim for this.”

Cissie waved him off. “It’ll be fine, Kon. He _says_ he wants to get closer to Tim, right? He’s not going to risk that by getting mad at him.”

Anita looked excited as Bart returned, carrying a tablet in one hand and a small camera in the other. “We’ll be able to watch it from the tablet.”

Bart flickered as he began to run but stopped himself. “Where should I get the stuff? I still have tons of sticky notes leftover from when I did Rose’s bike. And stickers from Gar’s room.” He flickered again. “Also, where does Nightwing even live?”

Conner put a finger up. “I know that one. He told me I could come to his apartment whenever right before I… _died_.” He cleared his throat. “We were flying to the fight, and he said I might need a break from everything, or if I needed help I could come over. It was pretty nice of him. I don’t know if it’s the same place, but here’s the address.” He wrote it down on Bart’s arm with Cassie’s pen.

“Okay, but what about the other stuff?”

Cissie got up and began rummaging through Tim’s cabinets. She eventually brought out cling wrap and food coloring, handing them to Bart.

Conner looked up with a mischievous look in his eye. “I still have a bunch of Red Robin wrapping paper from Christmas.”

Bart looked gleeful. “Where?”

“Under my bed in the Tower.” It probably wasn’t a good idea, given that it _was_ Tim’s symbol, but it’d be funny.

Bart disappeared, reappearing thirty seconds later with three rolls of paper in hand. “Got it! That’s everything.”

Cassie grabbed his arm before he could take off again. “Wait! Don’t touch his keys or his phone charger. He might need them.”

Anita squinted at her. “That’s exactly why we need to mess with them.”

“I agree with Cassie. He might have to use them for like, saving people. He needs his keys and his phone.”

“Fine..” The word was dragged out in a long sigh. 

Bart left, leaving the others to wait. He reappeared five minutes later, looking pleased with himself. “I’m done! Oh, and I also swapped out his coffee creamer with mayonnaise.”

Conner let out a surprised laugh. “Bart, you’re the best, man.”

“I know!” He pulled out his phone, showing them a few selfies he’d taken as he set up the pranks. Anita laughed as he showed one of him sticking his tongue out at the camera as he poured the entire container of food coloring into the pipes. “He wasn’t home, but he’s probably at Wayne Manor, right? Tim said he’d practically moved in.”

“So what now?”

“We should get Tim before he gets caffeine poisoning.”

“Got it!” Bart blurred, reappearing with Tim held in his arms bridal style.

“Bart. Down.” Bart dropped him like he was on fire, earning himself a dirty look.

“Why am I out here?”

Cassie grabbed his arm, dragging him over to them. “We’re not building _your_ furniture without you, Tim. You’re helping.”

“You _do_ know that Bart could do it all in seconds, right?”

Cissie gave him a smug smile. “Where would the fun in that be?”

He rolled his eyes, but picked up the instruction manual for the coffee table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The 'Dick offering Conner his apartment as a safe space' thing is completely made up, by the way. I just needed a way for them to have his address.
> 
> As for the loooonngggg paragraph at the beginning of the chapter, it's something I'm very proud of. I'm a grade-a sucker for close platonic relationships, and I love it.


	7. APPARENTLY trying to hide concussions is frowned upon. Unbelievable.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So maybe it was a bad idea to sneak out on patrol. Maybe. The jury was still out on that one.
> 
> Should he have woken up the others? Probably.
> 
> Did he? No.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiii. Sorry about the late update. I'm nearing the end of my semester, and I've been busy. Updates _should_ be fairly regular from here on out.
> 
> We'll see what my excuse is next time.
> 
> This story was originally supposed to be pretty serious, and a bit angsty. It has veered into crack. So I'm going to slowly try to work it back into 'serious mode', though I'm hoping to keep it with the light-hearted vibe that came with the original Young Justice. It was something I really like about that series, the ability to keep things happy and upbeat no matter how bad it was. Of course, that was mostly due to jokes that were said at the worst times, and that's like, how I live my life, so that'll be in there.

Tim's comm beeped from the coffee table where it'd been left haphazardly.

He didn't stir.

It beeped again, more insistently. This time, he was awake instantly. He carefully retracted his arm out from under Cissie, sliding the comm in as if it was second nature. To be honest, it pretty much was.

He spoke in a low tone, "Red Robin."

Babs' voice waltzed into his head. She didn't sound too urgent, so he wasn't worried. _"Red, are you free?_ "

He searched around for his phone, finding it. It wasn't _too_ late. And he was getting way too bored without work. "Yeah, I'm free. What's up?"

 _"Batgirl could use some help on Third._ "

"Let me guess, I'm closest?"

" _Yup._ "

He began the very slow process of extracting himself from the others, quietly making his way into the Nest. Once he was inside, he began talking at a normal volume as he began stretching to get rid of any residual sleepiness and to make sure he wouldn't be sore in the morning. "What's the situation? Mugging gone wrong? Busy night?"

 _"You pegged it at busy night. She's gone through at least five muggings in the last forty minutes._ "

He winced. "That bad?" Usually crime influxes that high were during Arkham breakouts or when something big had the Bats attention.

She must have heard something in his voice, because she reassured him as he slipped on the first layer of body armor. _"No breakouts or League business. Just a random wave._ "

He'd believe _that_ when the wave was over.

 _"It might be because it’s almost summertime. That’s Bruce’s theory._ "

 _That_ made more sense. To be honest, if it weren’t for his friends, he’d probably not know that it was indeed summertime. He took online college classes, and was in WE every day of the week. It never really mattered what specific day it was.

He climbed on his Ducati, feeling the pleasant rumbling start up beneath him. As he took off, he cut the line with Barbara, opening his own with Stephanie.

“Red Robin. Heading to you.”

She gave a huff of laughter and he heard someone yell in pain. _"Gee, Boy Wonder, all business._ "

He didn’t answer her, speeding around a corner.

He parked his bike in an alley near her, and grappled the rest of the way. He made his entrance dramatically, landing on top of the man she’d been fighting. He went down like a sack of bricks.

She cocked a hip, folding her arms. “I had him.”

“Yeah, you did. It was fun though.”

Steph rolled her eyes, punching his shoulder. “Did O send you?”

“Yup. Woke me up and everything.”

She gave a mock-gasp. “You? Sleeping? It’s a miracle!”

He heard one of the men shifting behind him, and he extended his bo staff behind him, only knowing it hit its mark when he heard a shriek and then a thud.

Batgirl rolled her eyes at his stoicism, but didn’t say anything. He stayed quiet, before shooting a grapple line onto the roof. She was right behind him.

It was almost like the old days. Back when they were Spoiler and Robin, and not Red Robin and Batgirl. Back when they were still kids.

They continued for another hour before Babs informed them that there was nothing left on her radar.

Tim readied his grapple, about to leave.

As he held out his hand, he heard a scream from a few blocks over. The two reacted instantaneously, jumping off the roof and to the next, and the next until they reached the place it had originated from.

There was a young woman surrounded by five men. She was shaking, holding out a taser at the one closest. 

“C’mon, lady, we just want some money. Give it over and you don’t _die_ tonight.” He gestured loosely with a gun as he threatened her.

She whimpered. 

It was _past_ time to jump in. Tim allowed Stephanie to jump in first, and she landed near silently behind the man who had spoken. Both vigilantes stepped forward at the same time, and Tim had a moment to enjoy the pure terror that visibly filtered through the men.

One of the other men spoke, holding his hands in the air as well as his gun. “Look, we don’t want any trouble..”

Batgirl punched her hand, cracking her neck. _Did she get that tactic from Damian?_ “I’m pretty sure _she_ ,” she nodded to the woman, who had slowly been backing away, “didn’t want any trouble either.”

Tim came forward in a flurry of movement, dodging baseball bats and a few gunshots. He heard one man fall with a scream from where Steph had been fighting. He and Batgirl had them all down in less than three minutes. He pulled out the ties on his belt as Stephanie called it in.

He started with the hands, tying it with a special knot before moving to the legs. He finished two more, moving onto the fourth.

 _Wham!_ Pain _seared_ through his skull, making him tip over from his crouching position and down onto the filthy ground. He blacked out for a few precious moments, thanking his lucky stars that it wasn't too long.

Tim groaned, pushing himself up with one hand. “Ow…” He put a hand to the back of his head, feeling it throb in his skull. He blinked a few times, slowly. He heard a yelp to his left, and he turned his head to the source. He saw Steph knocking a man unconscious next to him.

That must’ve been the guy who hit him. He knew that much. He also probably had a concussion. He stood up, stumbling as a wave of dizziness washed over him. He was caught by the elbow by Batgirl, who was looking at him with a mixture of fondness and worry. 

“You just have to get yourself injured every time, huh? Concussion?” He nodded, regretting it instantly. “What grade?”

“One. I was only out for a few seconds.” He grunted. “I hate concussions.” Luckily it seemed like it was a physical concussion, so he wouldn't be confused or having mood swings. Tim _hated_ being confused.

“So does everyone else. C’mon, let’s get you back to the Cave.” His head jerked, making him wince again.

He plowed on through the momentary pain, “I’m going back to my place, BG.”

“A can take care of you at the Cave. And keep your head still.”

“I have people over. They can do it.”

She rolled her eyes, and let go of him. “Where’s your ride?”

“I can do it myself, Batgirl.”

“You have a _concussion_ , and you just tripped over your own feet. I think not.”

He sighed, resisting the urge to shake his head. “It’s about a block from where we started.”

Steph wanted to groan out loud. “That’s like three miles away.”

“We _did_ grapple over here.” He grimaced, wiping it away quickly as he pulled his grapple from his belt. It was snatched out of his hands.

“Batgirl!”

She looked incredulous. “Tim,” she ignored the grumbled “ _codenames only_ ”. “You have a concussion. You aren’t gonna make it to your- whatever you took to get here.”

“It’s the Ducati. And I definitely can make it.” He knew for a fact he could.

She hooked the device onto her belt, pulling out her own. “ _You_ stay here, and I’ll be right back in a few minutes.” She stuck out her hand. “Keys.”

He wanted to protest, he really did. But his head hurt, and he didn’t feel like arguing with his ex-girlfriend at the moment. He closed his eyes, unlocking the pocket in his belt that housed the requested items. She took them with a muffled laugh.

“Flash, really?” It took him a second to realize that she was laughing at the cheap Flash keychain in her hand.

“Just go get the bike,” it came out as half-whine, half-authoritative.

She gave him a two fingered salute, before taking off. She could make a mile in roughly two to three minutes with a grapple, and the Ducati could run as fast as she needed it to. 

Tim forced himself to move to the last man, letting himself take a bit longer than he had on the others out of sheer self-pity.

As soon as that was done, he slid down against the wall to the pavement, gritting his teeth all the way. His head _hurt_. 

Cassie was going to _murder_ him.

Conner was going to try and wrap him in bubble wrap. Bart would bring it to him, and Anita would help them.

Cissie was probably going to yell. A lot.

He leaned back, resting his head.

A few minutes later, he saw Stephanie pull up, grinning at him. “This thing rides like a _dream_ ”

“That was the idea.”

“Quit sassing me and get up. The police’ll be here for them soon.” He accepted her offered hand, pulling himself up carefully. He managed not to jostle his head anymore, which he counted as a win. _Yay_.

He followed her over, and she settled up front, ready to drive him home. “Can you hang on?”

Tim resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “It’s grade one, not three. I can hold on just fine.”

She ignored him, settling on and starting it back up. He climbed on behind, latching onto her mid-section. They rode in a comfortable silence until they reached his home, pulling over. 

Tim breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that his lights were still off.

Steph turned, an eyebrow raised in question. He took one hand from around her, pointing to the small alley next to it. “Press the button in the middle of the console.” She did so, looking back at him with a surprised smile as the sidewalk opened up, a ramp appearing.

“This is kind of awesome, Tim.”

He smirked at her, not saying anything. She drove him in, parking next to the Redbird. Stephanie handed him the keys, not bothering to hide the snort that came with seeing the keychain again.

“You want me to stay?” She kind of wanted a tour. The place was at least three floors, plus the one they were standing on, which was below ground level.

His response was immediate. “No. I’m fine.”

She held up a hand, sighing theatrically, “Fine, I know when I’m not wanted. _You’re welcome_.”

He sighed at her, making a shooing motion with his hands. She left with a call of, “If you need anything, call me!”

Tim grimaced as he pulled back his cowl. He walked to the elevator, taking off bits and pieces of gear as he walked. By the time he arrived at ground level, he was left in only the black reinforced-leggings and his boots. All of it was dumped unceremoniously in his computer chair, and he made his way over to the lockers and pulling on an old band shirt and basketball shorts. Part of him wanted to take a shower, but the rest of him did _not_.

From there, he had two options. He could either stay awake for the next five hours, or he could set an alarm to wake him up every two so he could do a self-check up. He weighed both options, and eventually decided that having an incessantly beeping alarm wake him up would _not_ help with his headache. Screens would make it worse, no matter how much he wanted to type up a report. Those were no longer sent to the Batcave, instead being saved to his files.

Eh, he could always copy the parts of Steph’s that were relevant. 

Tim quietly made his way into the main living area, going to the fridge for an ice pack that was wrapped in a washcloth.

He stood in the kitchen for a moment, figuring out what to do with his new free time. TV wasn’t an option. Well, it wasn’t a _good_ one. He could do something else. He didn’t feel like reading a book. 

To be honest, Tim very rarely got concussions. It was a good thing, of course, but because of it, he was used to turning his downtime into productivity through work. Now that he couldn’t really do any of that, he was at a loss. Waking up his friends was _not_ a viable option. His head hurt, and he couldn’t really handle getting yelled at at the moment. He needed something repetitive, but quiet.

Part of him was amazed that none of them had woken up.

Small mercies.

He walked up the stairs to his room, dimming the lights. He _could_ mess with his old camera equipment. It'd been literal years since he'd taken photos of anything but a crime scene. The others would probably be proud of him for doing something fun.

He reached up to the top shelf, grabbing the slightly dusty camera bag. He couldn't help the soft smile that escaped him as he saw it. He hadn’t really touched the camera since his dad’s death. He wiped a cleaning wipe over the lens slowly, almost reverently as his smile widened.

Tim sat down cross-legged on his bed before beginning the tedious task of cleaning every nook and cranny of the device. He ran his finger across the dent on the side of it. He’d dropped the camera the first time he’d caught a glimpse of the red, green, and yellow Kevlar that made up the second Robin’s suit, and had scrambled to pick it up, dropping it again in the same spot. 

As he finished with the finer bits, he turned it on, crossing his fingers that it would still work. It did, which was a genuine surprise. None of the photos were still on it, he’d put them onto a secure hard drive years ago, but it was nostalgic to see the same camera that’d started his journey as a Bat, looking the exact same as it had then.

He snapped a few pictures of the room around him, zooming in and out to get different angles without getting up or turning on the flash. After a few minutes, he pulled it away from his face to take a closer look. He flicked through the new shots he'd taken, ultimately deciding not to go get a flash drive to put them on. They weren't worth it.

He turned the camera back off, checking it over, and slipping out the battery.

He looked over to the clock, and seeing that it'd been roughly forty-five minutes since he'd gotten in, decided to grab something to drink. Tim set the camera itself on his bedside table, and left the rest of his equipment on the bed.

As he picked it up, he realized that his ice pack was warm. Ugh. He needed a new one, or the bump on the back of his head would be huge in the morning. His cowl took the worst of it, luckily, but he’d still have a sizeable lump on his head without ice.

He got up, tiptoeing down the stairs as he attempted to sneak around the fort next to the stairs. Conner was no snitch, but if Tim was hurt… well, all bets were off.

He almost made it. Almost. He was so close.

As he turned around, new ice pack in hand, he began the slow trek through the main area. But what he hadn’t accounted for was Cassie’s arm sticking out. She must have moved in her sleep, or something, because it hadn’t been there before. Of course, he only noticed it when he tripped over it.

He cushioned the fall with his hands, saving his head, but the same couldn’t be said for the new Superboy lamp on the side table. It went down with a loud _crash!_ causing all of the previously asleep teenagers to startle awake, all with different levels of battle-readiness on their faces as the fort collapsed around them.

Tim groaned, loudly, from the floor where he was laying, his eyes closed in frustration.

“Tim! Are you okay?” Conner helped him up, but noticed the wince that crossed Tim’s face before it was wiped away.

The clone performed a quick visual scan of him, turning him this way and that as Tim struggled to reassure both him and the others that ‘yes, he was fine’ and ‘no, he wasn’t hurt’.

Cassie picked up the ice pack off the ground. “Want to explain?”

“Uh, no?”

“Do it anyway.”

Tim rubbed the back of his neck, before pulling it away with a near silent hiss. “I wanted an ice pack because I was hot?”

Bart announced his findings a moment later. “His gear’s on his computer chair!”

Tim gave him a betrayed look, earning a guilty shrug. He tried to backtrack as Conner and the girl’s each gave him admonishing looks. “Tim..”

He held up both hands at chest level. “Okay, okay, I may have gone out to _help Steph_ , which is a _good thing_ , because she needed it, and I might have, _just might have,_ gotten a mild, grade one concussion.” He raised his hands higher and began talking faster as he saw their expressions morph from suspicion to concern and each of them folded their arms. “It’s a grade one, so I’ll be back to normal in a week.”

“ _Tim-_ ”

“Please don’t yell, I already have a headache.”

Cassie continued at a normal volume, closing her eyes and letting out a quiet sigh. “I can’t bench you because technically you’re not at the Tower. But _please_ , don't go out again until you’re healed."

He relaxed a bit. "That's no problem, Cass."

Cissie stepped up, wagging her finger. "What were you thinking?"

"I don't know, _Mom_ , just that I got a call saying that Batgirl needed help, so I went out to help her? It's only a grade one, calm down."

She rolled her eyes, going in for a gentle hug, which he gladly gave. "I'm mad at you."

"I know."

"You should've brought us with you."

"Maybe."

She pulled back, searching his face. "Maybe? Tim, your living room is literally filled with superheroes, and you went out alone. You should've brought at least one of us."

"Nuh-uh. One, you were all sleeping. Two, I agreed to stay inside, and I didn't want to hear it about me leaving. Thirdly it was just going to be me and Steph, which we haven't done in a while."

Anita broke the contemplating silence that followed. "Countering your absolute nonsense, you know good and well that we all would've woken up, no problem. And we went out with you day before yesterday to help Nightwing. If it's a real problem, we all know you can go do that. Honestly, Tim, you know you can do whatever, it's just nice to have you for a whole week, mon. And yeah, I don't like Spoiler, but whatever." The girl sighed. "Go to sleep."

"I can't. Concussion."

Conner gave him a dry look, all his points used up by the girls. "We'll wake you up for checks."

"One sec." He was about to run, but then remembered how bad of an idea that was. He instead chose a light jog to run back up to his room, putting everything back away methodically, but still fairly quick. The battery was placed on a charger, and the camera was put back in the bag, and his lenses were packed away carefully. In under two minutes, everything was returned to its normal state, and he came back down the stairs.

He answered Bart's questions about what he'd been doing, before laying down in the spot his friends had left open for him, smack dab in the middle. Someone, likely Bart, had placed headache medication and an ice pack down, along with his blanket. He smiled at them all, and was back asleep in minutes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally I was supposed to shoot Tim, but I didn't feel like writing his recovery period. And since I'm not *aims a dirty look* _DC_ , I can't just ignore that. So he got a concussion instead. 
> 
> The next chapter will be in the POV of one of the Bats once I write it, though it probably won't be the one you think. >:)
> 
> P.S. Something that always bothers me about some of my favorite stories is that they forget to tag it properly, and that makes it fairly hard to find. Are there any tags I'm missing that this story should be tagged with? Let me know!


	8. Movies and..... a fight? Yeah, that sounds right.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick's first attempt at bonding with Tim. It goes well.
> 
> Not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Late, I know. Sorry.
> 
> I'm heading off to bed, so this is a bit rushed. Next chapter will be better, I hope. This is literally straight from my doc, no editing included. Any mistakes will be fixed in the morning.
> 
> Have a good night!

They'd been having a good day overall. It was a quiet day, but it was kind of nice after the chaos of the last few days. They'd started a Disney marathon, ordered in, and just relaxed.

Tim was lying comfortably in Cissie's lap, with Bart's head in his. Cassie was spread over Anita and Bart, and Conner had his head on top of Cissie's.

The doorbell rang, and Tim groaned, along with everyone else.

"Cass, you get it. No one's on top of you."

"Yeah, but your head is the only thing on Cissie. You get it."

"I'm comfortable," Kon griped. "Who even rings a doorbell nowadays?"

"Whoever's at the door."

"No dip, Anita." She snickered.

Conner flung the door open, not bothering to see who was outside. His mouth fell open in surprise. "Spoiler?"

The girl grinned, though there was a hint of something sour in it as she looked at him. "Hey Tiny Supes. Is Tim here?" She held up a tote bag.

Conner heard a few complaints from inside the blanket tent before Tim's head peeked out of the side. "Steph?"

"Hey Boy Wonder!" She sidestepped Conner, letting herself in.

Tim looked puzzled. "Hey. What are you doing here?"

She pulled out a Ziploc bag that had Tim nearly drooling. "I brought Alfred cookies."

Bart scrambled out of the fort. "Cookies?"

The others laughed at him, even as Tim got up and stretched. He gave his ex-girlfriend a hug, and grabbed the bag. He tossed Bart the cookies, nearly starting a brawl.

Everyone loved Alfred cookies. Everyone. Tim had brought some with him occasionally to both Mount Justice and Titans Tower over the years, and only Ma Kent's cookies were on par. So yeah, even Conner shut the door and grabbed a few cookies before they were gone.

After a moment, Tim pulled his head out of the bag, holding up a bottle of Advil. "Alfred _does_ know that I have a first-aid kit, right? Comes with Advil, Tylenol, _and_ band-aids."

"Funny. You try saying no to Alfred."

"Fair point. Did he give you the look?"

"Yup." Tim winced. No one could say no to the Alfred look. Steph looked him over, finally giving a wave and greetings to the other people in the room. They kept it polite, if reserved. "You're alive amd well?"

Tim rolled his eyes. "Obviously."

She put her hands up, "Hey, you might've pulled a me. You never know."

Tim gave her a look that said ' _are you serious?_ '. "No, I did not _die and come back_ in the twelve hours since I last saw you."

She gave him a cheerful thumbs up. "Good to know! Let the record show that I have now done my part and checked on you."

She gave another wave to the room, calling out, "Toodles!" before she was gone. Tim snorted as he locked the door behind her, before turning around to get his portion of the cookies.

He gaped as he saw the empty bag and crumbs around the others' lips. "Are you kidding me?"

Cassie shrugged, not looking the least bit guilty. "You should've seen this coming."

Tim sighed. "Those were _my_ cookies."

Even Bart let out a breath of laughter. "I'm _me._ "

"Point."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I DID delete most of the chapter because I didn't like it anymore. Plus, I'm trying to make the plot a bit more... realistic. It felt corny and too ooc for me to keep in as I had it. So.... yeah.


	9. Orbeez. That's it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orbeez.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.
> 
> I feel really bad that I wasn't able to post this earlier. I'm really sorry to anyone who's been waiting for it.
> 
> Updates _will_ be sparser, but I'm not giving up on this story!
> 
> Have a great day!

"Why are you only willing to do fun stuff when Cissie or Anita are with us?"

Tim shrugged. "The combined forces of the girls can usually take care of _you two_ ," he pointed two fingers at Bart and Conner, "so I don't have to worry about it."

Cissie rolled her eyes. "You're such a mom."

" _What_?" Tim looked at her with wide eyes as Conner snickered next to him. "No, no, no. We already _had_ this discussion when we met Bart. _Conner_ is the mom friend."

Cassie snorted. "Yeah, Conner is _Bart's_ mom. You're everyone else's."

"Wait, how did I become _Bart's_ mom?"

Tim waved him off. "We agreed on that years ago."

"Uh, no, you told me that as you got in the Batmobile and drove off."

"Yeah, we agreed. Cassie, _rewind_ . When did I become the _mom friend_?"

Cissie patted his shoulder. "I know it can be difficult to accept certain parts of yourself, but you'll learn someday."

He scowled at her. "But _when did it happen_?"

"Tim, you became the mom friend as soon as you became the leader of Young Justice."

" _That was four years ago_!"

"Yeah."

"Why did no one tell me?"

"We thought you knew."

"Can we have this discussion when we're not in a blow-up pool full of Orbeez?"

"No, this is the perfect time for this."

Bart squirmed before dumping a handful of the little beads into Conner's hair.

"Bart!" The Super jumped a literal foot in the air, staying there as he combed through it with his fingers to get them out.

He swooped back down, snatching some up and throwing them back at his friend. The others yelped, ducking, and in Tim's case, sliding down under the surface.

"Conner!"

"Oh, you are so on!" Cassie joined him in the air as she chucked handful after handful at him.

The Orbeez that fell created a shower of them on the rest of the group. Bart darted around, throwing them at anyone and everyone.

After being berated with the gel beads one time too many, Conner grabbed Tim out of the pool, ignoring his protests as he used him for a meat-shield.

Cassie stopped, laughing at the pout that was featured across Tim's face. Her eyes widened as she watched the pout turn devious, and Tim reached into his pocket to grab an handful of Orbeez that he threw into the face of his best friend.

Conner dropped him in shock, and Tim plummeted the five feet, straight into the pool with a loud 'splash!'

The room froze.

Tim resurfaced a second later, swiping his wet hair out of his face as he chuckled. "Bart, I have to admit, this was one of your better ideas."

A group sigh of relief went up.

"It really was."

Bart grinned. "No, the best idea was having it in here, and not the living room." They'd had to move the car and bikes, but it'd been worth it to have the huge empty space that the Nest provided.

"Oh, it wouldn't have _happened_ if the living room was the only option."

"Very true."

Conner pinched one, watching it explode between his fingers. "What should we do with them now?"

"I vote we keep throwing them at each other," Cassie grinned. "All in favor say aye!"

"Aye!" Cissie called.

"Aye, but only if I'm not cleaning it up."

"Aw shut up, Tim. We can sing the cleanup song and everything."

"Whatever, Kon." Conner was about to snipe back, but he heard something from the level above. 

"Your phone's ringing."

"Crap!" Tim jumped out of the pool to get it, but slipped on the beads surrounding the pool, launching himself back into it.

Cassie laughed above him as she picked him up and brought him up to his phone.

"Thanks." He answered it, not even looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"

" _Timmy! You finally picked up_!"

Tim fumbled the phone. "Hey…" He dragged out the word. "What's up?"

" _Are you free today_?"

"What?"

" _I was thinking we could get burgers from that good place we found a couple of years ago on patrol. Or Thai. What do you think_?"

"Uh.. burgers?"

" _Great! Meet you there at six_?"

"... Sure. That sounds good." Dick hung up, and Tim stared at the phone,

"So, _that_ happened."


	10. Burgers and an Accident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. Remember me? It's been a minute.
> 
> Apparently I misjudged both my ability to multitask, and the amount of planning that went into the actual plot of this story.
> 
> So, yeah. I have no idea where I'm taking this, so strap in and get ready for a wild ride while I do. Updates will be SPARSE. I really am sorry. I know you guys probably get sick of these kinds of author's notes, but ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯.
> 
> As for the multitasking issue, I mentioned an au I was working on a few chapters ago. It has TAKEN OVER MY LIFE. It's literally all I've been working on. I have been drawing it. I have been writing for it.
> 
> It's insane.
> 
> At least with that one, I plan on finishing it BEFORE I post, so y'all won't have to worry about that.
> 
> In the meantime, feel free to read through some of my bookmarks, I guess. It's got the fics I read, so...
> 
> Have a lovely day, everyone!

Tim had refused to take a comm with him . Conner would be listening in anyway, and Dick would be actively _looking_ at him. Probably.

Either way, Dick would notice.

So that was out.

He pulled up in front of Bluebird Burgers and parked his car.

As he walked in, he spotted Dick in the corner by the bathroom, a few tables away from anyone else. The man was facing away from the door. 

Tim slid into the booth, and smiled at his older brother. The weak grin he got in response was _not_ reassuring. At all.

Tim's mind began to run through multiple possibilities. "Is someone hurt?"

"Nothing! Nothing's wrong. Geez, Timmy, you gotta relax a bit."

Tim sagged. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"I ordered your favorite! Onions and mustard _is_ still your favorite, right?"

"Yup. Got it in one."

Dick grinned at him, some of his usual enthusiasm returning. "So, how're things with your friends? You all seem really close."

"We are. Of course, we lost touch for a bit, but Bart brought us all back together."

"That's great! Honestly, I should probably call some of the old Titans up sometime."

"Yeah, probably."

* * *

There was a lull in the conversation, but it wasn't wholly uncomfortable. 

It was going far more pleasantly than Dick had hoped for.

"Anything interesting happen at work?" He used to tell Tim funny stories that had happened while he was with the force. Tim loved them. _Now_ , Dick would get the same experience from his little brother's tales.

Tim pondered for a moment. "Hm… Oh! Last week, Mrs. Aston from Accounting came up to my office and _demanded_ that I fire Mr. Yette. He works in her department, by the way."

Dick nodded, leaning forward.

"So I ask her why, and she says, get this, 'Daryl keeps bringing lunch for the whole department!' She sounded so pissed off, it was hilarious I swear. She must've seen the look on my face, cause she explained real quick. At first I thought she might have some allergies or something, but that's not really a problem. She could just not eat the food. But anyway, she goes on to say that him bringing in food is a problem, because after they all eat, everyone is too full to try _her_ pie. _That's_ why she came up to complain." Tim chuckled. "I had to make a schedule for them, so now Mr. Yette brings in lunch on Mondays, and she brings pie on Fridays."

Dick's face twitched up into a smile. "That's actually pretty funny."

"Right?" He shook his head, grinning at the table.

As the story bounced around in his head, something kept chipping at the sheer ridiculousness of it. "But, um, isn't it dangerous for her to just… come up to your office like that? To have direct access to the CEO?"

Tim looked surprised. "Of course not. Do you really think I'd take a risk like that? For no reason?"

"Well no, but I was just worried." _And his foot returns to his mouth. Ladies and gentlemen, he did it again! Have you ever seen someone ruin a mood that quickly? Gosh, I haven't seen a move like that since '96!_

"All WE employees get background checks done, and on top of that, Bruce programmed a notification to get sent to the downstairs computer if anything new comes up." He continued. "On top of _that_ , Mrs. Aston has worked for us for _twenty years_. She used to give me pieces of candy whenever she saw me, when I would come visit Bruce. She's totally safe."

Dick sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like _that._ "

"It's alright."

The waitress chose _that_ moment to bring over their food.

Part of Dick wanted to tip her extra for her _perfect_ timing. He would.

Tim was already two bites in by the time Dick picked up his burger. 

"Hungry much?"

Tim glared at him. He swallowed before answering. "Shut up."

Dick smiled at him. It was nice to get back to banter.

"Tim, I really _am_ sorry for the other night. That wasn't how it was supposed to go."

Tim rolled his eyes, and gave him a genuine smile. "Don't worry about it. We cleared that up, what, like an hour later? Cissie shouldn't have said that."

Dick cringed. "I haven't been the best brother to you, have I?"

"What?" Tim startled. "No, you've been fine. The gremlin needs the full Dick Grayson-treatment. I'm good right now. It makes sense."

_That wasn't a straight answer._

"We missed your _birthday._ " It was something Dick had realized when he'd been talking about the whole issue with Bruce. If Dick had only seen the problem a few weeks earlier. "I mean, you're an adult now!"

Tim grabbed a fry. "It's just another year."

Dick wanted to bash his head against the table. "Okay, it's _not_ , but let's say it is. What did you do?"

"We had a long weekend at the farm."

Dick's eyebrows pulled together. "The Kent farm?"

"Yup. Honestly, you didn't miss much."

_Why on Earth hadn't Clark called him? Or even Bruce? Even Ma Kent hadn't called._

Dick cocked his head. "What did you do for your seventeenth? I can't remember."

Tim's eye twitched. "Nothing. I was looking for Bruce."

_Oh._

_Ladies and gentlemen, it hasn't even been five minutes, and Grayson has managed to do it yet_ again _! It's almost amazing how often he manages to bring up taboo topics!_

"We should patrol together soon."

"Mm-hm." Tim took another bite. "Y'know, this is actually a really good burger. I'm going to add this place to my list."

"You _really_ need to learn to cook."

"I'm perfectly fine on takeout and leftovers."

Dick cackled. "Do you remember when you tried to make me a steak for my birthday?"

Tim flushed, shoving Dick's arm. "Yes, I remember."

"You almost burnt the house down!"

"I would've made it to the extinguisher before it got that far," he grumbled.

" _Sure_."

Tim's phone rang again. 

Dick watched his face cycle through the five stages of grief at whatever was being said.

He mouthed to his brother, ' _your friends?_ '

Tim nodded. His eyes closed, and he snickered. "Okay, Kon, just fly up and get it. My laptop is waterproof, so don't worry about it. No, it's fine. I can get new blankets." He rolled his eyes. "I'll grab some on the way back. Yes, yes, he'll be fine. She's probably not even that mad. Tell him to let it go. I have to _go._ Yes, bye."

Dick raised an eyebrow. "Do you need to leave?"

"Nah, they'll be fine. Anita's got them."

Dick blew out a breath. "Okay, I'm not gonna lie, I am _very_ curious about whatever happened. I heard one side, and it was a _trip_."

"I just don't get how, the second I leave, _everything_ goes nuts."

"You're team leader, right? That's what you're for."

"I'm the strategist, but yeah."

"But what _happened_?"

"Chaos."

" _Tim._ "

"Fine, fine. _So_ , Cissie was bringing a bunch of cups of soda into the fort, but she tripped on Anita's leg. And got soda _everywhere_ . So now all of my nice, _white_ sheets are covered in cola. Along with everyone that was inside."

Dick cringed. "Dang. And your laptop?"

"Yup. It's waterproof, but I'm still going to have to clean it."

"Yeesh."

"And it got in Cassie's phone, so now she's gotta get a new one."

"Your group _really_ doesn't do anything halfway, do you?"

"No we do _not_."

* * *

Tim was still smiling as he unlocked his front door. 

Bart ran over to him immediately. "How'd it go?" 

Tim shrugged, tossing the blankets to Conner. "Pretty good. Better than I expected, definitely."

"Good!"

He got supportive thumbs-ups all around. "I'm happy for you, Tim."

Tim smiled. "So, exactly how many sheets did Cissie ruin?"


	11. Flailing and Failing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title is directed at Bart. One hundred percent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I don't even know what this is. I felt guilty for not updating, so I managed to whip this up. It's COMPLETELY filler.

“I think I liked your other haircut better.” Tim mused, looking at the side of his best friend’s head.

Cissie and Anita gave him incredulous looks, along with Conner. “ _ Seriously _ ?”

Conner sounded disbelieving. “I’ve had the same haircut for two  _ years _ , and you never said anything.”

Tim shrugged. “I just realized it right now. It’s like, as soon as we joined the Titans, you changed everything. The haircut, the earring- which I do  _ not _ miss by the way, your outfit, and like, everything else.”

Cissie put a hand on her chin as she looked at Kon. “You’re right. The hair was  _ eh _ , but the suit was better than the stupid shirt.”

Conner opened his mouth to protest. “I think we all know exactly how you all feel about my shirt.”

“It’s horrible.”

“It looks like you don’t even care anymore.”

“It’s really bad, Conner.”

Conner looked at the door. “I  _ wonder _ where Cassie and Bart are.”

Cissie laughed. “She’s probably trying to convince Bart to put on his skates.”

“I’m ditching you guys,” Tim announced, standing up easily. He carefully stepped over to the edge of the rink, and grinned at the fake-offense covering Cissie’s face as he rolled onto it, and began to skate in earnest.

After a few laps, he looked back over to the table, and saw Cassie keeping a very unsteady Bart on his feet as he tried to stay upright on his skates. Tim weaved out of the way of an incoming skater, making his way back to the table.

Bart was whining as he reached the table. “Why do I have to do this? I can just  _ watch _ .”

"Because that's boring. C'mon, I'll help you." Cissie grabbed his forearms, pulling him back away from the table. He wobbled for a moment, throwing out both arms to stay upright. 

"Cissie…"

"Relax!" She pulled him out onto the floor as the others watched Bart slip and almost fall, before wrapping his arms completely around her in an awkward almost-hug.

"I give it two minutes before he falls."

"Aw, give him some credit, Anita. Three minutes at least."

Cassie shook her head, rising to her feet. "He's wobbling again. I give it a minute and a half."

One of his feet slipped outwards, and his other foot blurred. Both of them went down.

"Wow, we all lose."

Anita laughed. "I don't know why he always tries to correct himself at superspeed if it never works."

"He says it's instinct."

"Well, instinct is why he's so bad at skating."

Tim got back up. "If I can teach Kon, I can teach Bart."

* * *

Tim skated up to Cassie and Anita twenty minutes later. "He's hopeless."

Cassie laughed. "That bad?"

" _ That bad _ ."

* * *

Tim snorted, swatting Bart's hands away as he unlocked the front door. "I can just get you a Hulu account, Bart. They're like, ten bucks a month."

"It's actually only six," Anita added helpfully.

"For basic, yeah. But it's only a couple of bucks more for premium."

Bart gave him a finger gun. "Thanks. But I honestly would've been fine just mooching off your account."

"No proble-  _ Cass _ ?" Tim gaped, letting the bag drop as he finally noticed the girl sitting on his island.

Bart leaned over to whisper to Cissie, "I wondered if all Bats just break into houses instead of just knocking. Guess they do."

She snickered, starting to take off her glow in the dark jewelry.

Cass waved her fingers at him, before holding up a rice krispy in her other hand. "Hi, little brother."

Tim grinned and ran over to give her a hug. "You're back?"

"Yes. I wanted to surprise you."

He chuckled, "You definitely did that. Though, you could've just called."

"Did it for the nostalgia."

He laughed again. "You're spending too much time with Steph." Tim shook his head. "But yeah, this was a great surprise."

She smiled. "Took a shower. Just like old days."

"I'm guessing that's the last rice krispy?" At her nod, he shook his head fondly. "You staying? You can hang out with us."

She shrugged. "For a little bit. Don't want to crash your sleepover."

"It would be fine, right guys?" Tim looked to Bart and Anita for backup, receiving twin thumbs-up. Anita held up her phone. "Conner says he's good with it, and so's Cassie. Cissie says she doesn't mind as long as she teaches her some words in Sign."

Cass laughed. "Would love to. Tim can also teach."

"So you're staying?"

"Mm-hm."

Tim smiled, hopping back off the counter. "We grabbed some seafood from the place downtown."

Cass smiled. "Leftovers?"

"Yup."

"Good."

"Are you patrolling with Steph tonight?"

"Yes. Haven't in very long time."

"She'll love that."

"Yes, she is very excited."

Tim pursed his lips to suppress a smile. "Is that my shirt?"

"Yes." She didn't even have the decency to look ashamed. 

He smiled. "I have some softer ones in my dresser if you want them."

Bart gasped. "You never offer me your clothes."

"Suck it up. You take them anyway."

"Still rude."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am once again lost for a plot. I'm leaning towards adding more crack to it, but I don't want to negate the actual bits of plot I've managed to add in. Any suggestions?
> 
> I have a TON of other new stories I'm working on, but they're not ready quite yet, so you'll have to wait for thosen
> 
> Last but not least, I've made a Tumblr! I'm taking requests, comments, and bad jokes if you care to send them in. Come find me @ The-Fair-Maiden-Of-Fandom!


	12. Author's Note

Hello everyone! I'm afraid I have some news that'll probably be disappointing.

I've fallen out of DC. Anyone who follows my Tumblr probably could tell. I still love the characters, and the comics, and the things like that, but it's gotten harder and harder to create for this fandom. Fanon and the fandom has become... tiring.

I may come back! I started out on this site as a Marvel stan, and I've been coming back around to that, so I'll still try periodically to continue these stories. But I think it'd be better in the long run for me to just stop and write for fandoms I'm actually in, rather than keep trying to force out content for DC.

I've fallen back into mostly Star Wars and Big Hero 6 as of right now, and have some content I've been working on for those! To anyone who's been holding out for updates on this story, I'm so sorry.

-Ari

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell at me on Tumblr! @the-fair-maiden-of-fandom
> 
> My requests are always open!


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